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Puerto Rico suffers tough loss to Spain in five sets

 

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, June 8, 2014 – Puerto Rico suffered a tough defeat to Spain in five sets (26-24, 18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 19-17) to close the FIVB World League Pool G round-robin first weekend.

 

The two sides together with Slovakia finished with a 1-2 win-loss record while China was undefeated at 3-0 as the teams now move on to next weekend in Slovakia.

 

The nail-biting fifth set had on their feet more than 2,500 spectators at Guillermo Angulo Coliseum who watched the seesaw affair between the two teams very evenly matched.

 

The Spaniards prevailed with the effective attacks of Francisco Ruiz, who finished with 18 points, at the key moments. Marc Altayo and Juan Manuel Gonzalez contributed 15 and 12 points, respectively, in the victory.

 

Puerto Rico’s Maurice Torres was the best scorer of the match with 32 points, followed by Ezequiel Cruz and Roberto Muñiz with 13 and 12 points, respectively.

 

Earlier on the day, China recovered from losing the first set and went on to defeat Slovakia 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-22, 25-18).

 

China’s Weijun Zhong top-scored the winners with 16 points followed by Zhi Yuan with 13. Lubos Kostolani was the best for Slovakia with 12 tallies.

 

Final positions: China 3-0 (9 points), Slovakia 1-2 (4 points), Puerto Rico 1-2 (3 points) and Spain 1-2 (2 points). The top two teams advance to the playoff in Turkey.