Canada wins NORCECA Bronze past Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, October 13, 2019.- Canada won the NORCECA Women's Continental Championship bronze medal past Puerto Rico 3-0 (26-24, 25-13, 25-20) on Sunday at Roberto Clemente Coliseum of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is Canada's ninth bronze medal in the history of the event, of an overall 11 medals (two silvers). The last time Canada reached the NORCECA podium was in 1999 winning bronze.

In the preliminary round, Canada had lost to Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-23, 25-22, 25-18) and in the 2015 edition they lost the bronze to Puerto Rico 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-17).

The first set was a nail bitter while Canada missed five-set points 24-19 with Puerto Rico's strength in serves and powerful kills managed to even 24. Canada's big blocking offense took charge in the second set, leaving Puerto Rico with little options to recover while Canada moved forward from 16-12 up to 23-12.

Canada led with huge 42-25 margin in attacks, 8-6 in blocks and 8-4 in aces. Puerto Rico committed fewer errors (18-22).

Alexa Grey was Canada's best scorer with a match-high of 21 points on 17 kills and 4 blocks; Kiera Van Ryk joined in with 13 points including 4 aces and Emily Maglio tallied 12 points. Puerto Rico's top scorer was Paulina Prieto with 10 points.

Alexa Grey, leading scorer of Canada: "We always want to peek once we get to play-offs and I think we did a great job following our game-plan. Our serving pressure the first time we faced Puerto Rico wasn't as good and today it dialed in hitting our spots and put them in trouble. I am proud of how we recovered in the third set. We have a lot of heart and in January we will give it our all".

Benjamin Josephson, Head Coach of Canada: "The difference from our first match against Puerto Rico is three things: my staff really worked hard to make sure we learned from what we didn't do, they got it to the athletes and the players digested to execute it well".