Puerto Rico Sweeps Costa Rica at NORCECA Championship

 

Canada, September 19-2007. This was going to be a good test for Puerto Rico after a long fight with Canada the night before and a difficult loss that was evident on the players faces. Costa Rica had nothing to lose and could come out and play a relaxed game.

 

The first few points of the first set indicated that this contest might be closer than many would have thought, but a 4-4, Puerto Rico started to take control and would lead 8-4 at the first time out. That point gap would remain intact to the second time out with Puerto Rico remaining in front by a score of 16-12, and would not differ any as the result was a Puerto Rico 25-16 win.

 

Puerto Rico continued to dominate starting the second set with an 8-3 lead at the first time out. They would continue to lead 16-9 at the second time out and cruised to a 25-13 second set victory.

 

It was again Puerto Rico who took the early advantage at the first time out leading 8-5. However, Costa Rica was not prepared to roll over and fought their way back in to tie the set at 10-10. Tied at 14, Costa Rica took their first lead of the game and held on to remain up 16-15 at the second technical time out.

 

Puerto Rico would finally find the lift they needed of the powerful attack of their captain Aurea Cruz to pull ahead and close off the set with a 25-19.

 

Player of the game for Puerto Rico was Aurea Cruz with 25 points on 18 kills, 1 block and 6 service aces. Karen Cope led the way for Costa Rica with 14 points on 11 kills, 2 blocks and 1 service ace.

 

Post Match Quotes:

Team Puerto Rico

Aurea Cruz- Captain

“Today we knew we had to come out very strong to demonstrate that we still want to go to the medal rounds. Our serving was very strong, making it difficult for the passers, making it easier for us to concentrate on their outside hitters. Now our concentration is on tomorrow’s game either against the USA or Dominican Republic. We will need to be much more consistent tomorrow.”

Juan Nunez- Head Coach

“For us it was a very important match today to rebound from a loss last night to Canada that we were not happy with. Never the less, we took our opponent very seriously today and we needed to in order to prepare for a very important match tomorrow. It is very important that we win tomorrow to ensure that we are in the medal rounds. Tomorrows practice will be very tactical and we look forward to playing either team.”

 

Team Costa Rica

Paola Ramirez- Captain

“We didn’t play well today, especially the first two sets. We were not moving well, we were not active. We hope to improve for our match against Mexico. We are two young teams, so we are looking forward to beating Mexico.”

Eladio Vargas- Head Coach

“Our players look very bad against Puerto Rico. Our reception was very bad. They served very effectively and we could not control it. When we were able to have a good reception and to counter attack, sometimes we could do it well, but others, the blocking or Puerto Rico was very strong. We were not able to control the counter attack of Puerto Rico, they were moving the ball very well, mixing short drops or attacking hard and we were not able to figure it out. For the next matches we have to control our serve and be more effective.”