Puerto Rico sweeps Guatemala and will go after seventh place

HAVANA, Cuba, March 31, 2017 – Puerto Rico swept Guatemala 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-17) and will go for the seventh place on Saturday in the IV U18 Girls’ Pan American Cup at the Sports City Coliseum.

The Puerto Rican wing spiker, Sofia Victoria, was the only player who scored in double figures (21), while middle blocker, Maria Jimenez, and wing spiker, Paola Alvarado, scored 5 points apiece for the Central Americans.

Julio Meléndez, coach of Puerto Rico: “Although we lost against Argentina and the possible world ticket we want to finish in a good final standing. Today my team entered much more focused not letting Guatemala to lead the match because despite they lost to Uruguay they had fought making their rival stretch into a tie-break.”

 “For the seventh place, we will meet Costa Rica. We do not know much about their playing and we cannot underestimate them. So we will prepare to go for a 3-0 match.”

Edgar Callejas, coach of Guatemala: “It was a match to rotate the reserve allowing all the athletes to play a little and enjoy the match. They are often under pressure for their young age, but in each set we were improving which was our aim.”

“Here we are aimed at learning and doing in this tournament what we cannot at home. We will go for the revenge against Uruguay who defeated us 2-3 in the preliminary round, and tomorrow we will also have to get the victory to not finish at the bottom.”