Colombia wins tie-break surprising Dominican Republic

CHINCHA, Peru, September 8, 2014.-  Colombia surprised Dominican Republic in a well disputed match that extended to a tie-break  (20-25, 25-19, 22-25, 27-25, 15-6) to even both team’s win-loss record 1-1 at the II Women’s U23 Pan-American Cup in Mauro Mina Coliseum.

From the first whistle both teams engaged in brutal duel, remembering the feat of the 2012 U-20 World Championship in Czech Republic where the Caribbean won in four sets.

With solid serves (10-2) and superior spiking (64-50) Colombians were led by Amanda Coneo (22), joined by Ivonee Montano (20)  and Diana Arrechea (14), while the Dominicans led in blocking (11-8) and Yonkaira Peña leading all scorers (26), followed by Brayelin Martinez (20), the other double-digit scorers.

“Our team can play head to head with others; they still lose control psychologically, but we are making important steps towards our growth and proving that with even if we’re missing two key players -1.95 opposite and a 1.92 middle blocker- we have a young team that puts up a fight” said excited, Brazilian Mauro Marasciulo coach of Colombia.

He recognized that this is the result of an important process of training all together, they qualified to the 2015 Grand Prix, they played the pre-Olympic and other tournaments that helped them gain experience and “understanding that volleyball must be played and not observed, which is the fan’s responsibility”.

Colombian captain, setter Maria A. Marin indicated “Dominican Republic is strong, aggressive in their attacks and blocking, we were determined to play hard, yes we lost sets but as the match developed we improved in reception and defending almost each ball and we are glad with the win”.

On the other hand, coach Wagner Pacheco “we missed serves, which Colombia failed yesterday and today didn’t, my team didn’t receive well either, and in key moments we missed the opportunity to close the match, we lacked experience and rhythm in our game. Even if Colombia is missing players in their line-up, they have a lot of time playing in the senior’s category”.

Tall Brayelin Martinez said “in the beginning we executed well as our coach indicated, but we easily loosen and the match fell out of our hands”.