Dominican Republic is too much for Nicaragua

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, July 9, 2014. – Defending champions Dominican Republic defeated Nicaragua 25-3, 25-9, 25-8 in their first match of the Women’s U-20 NORCECA Continental Championship on Wednesday at Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.

Dominicans were too much for Nicaragua who struggled all the way without finding a way to counterattack. The winners proved their intentions to fight for their title giving no chance for mistakes.

Dominican Republic beat Nicaragua with superiority and huge advantage in spikes by 23-8, as well as in the blocking category by 12-1 and in service points by 3-1. Dominican Republic took advantage of Nicaragua’s 37 unforced errors while sustaining only 10 of their own.

Outside hitter Brayelin Martinez was Dominican Republic maximum scorer with 11 points, with 3 blocks included; she was joined by opposite Galia Gonzalez with 9 points. For the Nicaraguan side, outside hitter Florelisa Smith topped with 8 points.

Dominican Captain Brayelin Martinez said “our preparation has been very strong and I’m glad we started well playing with high level”.

Captain Florelisa Smith expressed “we played with good attitude but Dominican Republic is a superior team and we began failing. I tried to motivate my team not to give away the points and make Dominicans fight for them”.

“The win is important, but mostly the amounts of points we were able to score. I want to congratulate Nicaragua for never stop battling, the fought strongly, trying to attack every time which made us concentrate harder. Tomorrow’s match against Cuba is decisive” said Brazilian Coach Wagner Pacheco.

“Nicaragua is here to add points to our ranking in NORCECA for future competitions. Today was harder for us because Dominican Republic is a very experienced team and they’ve been playing together for a long time” said Coach Claudia Noguera.