Argentina beat Dominican Republic 3-2

LIMA, Peru, August 4, 2017 – Argentina claimed its first victory at the U18 Final Four Volleyball Cup by Herbalife after a 3-2 (25-19, 29-27, 19-25, 20-25, 15-13) victory against a fighting Dominican Republic at Manuel Bonilla Coliseum of Miraflores, Lima.

The team coached by Alexandre Ceccato had the top scorer of the match, the outside hitter Madeline Guillen with 25 points, but could not make up for the continuous defensive and reception mistakes by the Dominica side. And despite the fact that the side captained by Natalia Martinez stretched the battle to a fifth set, the team of Argentina managed to keep the focus and reinforced the blocking to claim the win.

The top scorers for Argentina were Ángeles Ligorria, Sofía Meinardi and Melisa Corso who each registered 15 points, followed by middle blocker Bianca Farriol who had 13 markers. In the Dominican side, Guillen was backed by the captain Martínez with 18 points and Yanlis Feliz with 14.

The Dominican Republic held the edge in attacks (59-58), blocks (10-7) and aces (12-8), but committed 35 unforced errors to 28 by the winners.

Estanislao Vachino, coach of Argentina: It was a very tough match. We just lost to the Dominican at the Pan American Cup so it was source of joy to claim this triumph and to start the Final Four with a win. In the afternoon we will play Peru, they have a good coach and I expect a beautiful match.

Pilar Cena, captain of Argentina: It was a tough match. We started with determination but lost the target in the third set. Then we regained the concentration to take the win. We know Peru play a style very similar to us, they defend a lot so we will have to battle to get our points. We will be motivated for the game.

Alexandre Ceccato, coach of Dominican Republic: We started well all the sets, but could not get the result. We recovered the rhythm in the third and four sets but at the end the two-point difference gave the victory to Argentina. They served very well. We will play Cuba in the afternoon and that will be a tough one.

Natalia Martinez, captain of Dominican Republic: We could not win which was the first goal because we failed to take advantage after getting the lead. We started the sets very well but at the 20-point mark we committed mistakes and let our head to get down. We need to enter with a better attitude from the warm up session, attacking hard, celebrate until the last point and keep the rhythm.