Puerto Rico wins warm-up match before big final

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, July 19, 2014 – Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic played a warm-up match before Sunday’s final contest of the NORCECA Men’s Final Playoff for the last berth in the World Championship in Poland.

The match went to the five-set limit with Puerto Rico getting the top hand at the end by scores of 20-25, 25-14, 21-25, 25-15, 15-13.

Both teams used the match as an evaluator to analyze the options for the crucial match on Sunday. The two coaches both decided to rest their main offensive players Maurice Torres (PUR) and José Cáceres (DOM) during the whole match.

The Dominican squad dominated with great form the first and third sets while the home side did the same in the second and fourth frames.

“The strategy all the way was to give a workshop to everyone and not to drain any player. I think we did that job and now we have to prepare everything for tomorrow,” Puerto Rican Coach David Aleman said.

On the other hand, the coach of Dominican Republic, José Alvarez said: “It was clear that this game was for the use of all the personnel. Tomorrow’s match will be a great one and both will play our best in court for the classification to the World Championship.”

Jackson Rivera had 20 points as the best of Puerto Rico. Hector “Picky” Soto and Pedrito Sierra had 10 and 8, respectively. Germán Recio had 15 and Elnis Palomino added 11 for the Dominican team.