Dominican Republic to defend the title in the finals

CAÑETE, Peru, June 24, 2017 – Defending champions Dominican Republic advanced to the gold medal match of the XVI Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup by Movistar after scoring a convincing straight-set victory 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 25-19) over Puerto Rico at Lolo Fernandez Coliseum on Saturday.

Bethania de la Cruz and Jineiry Martinez each had 12 points as the offensive leaders of the Dominican Republic. Brayelin Martinez and Annerys Vargas contributed 10 and 9 points, respectively, in the win. Puerto Rican Daly Santana was the lone with double digits in the score sheet for the defeated side.

The winners held an advantage of 42-31 in attacks and 9-6 in blocks with Jineiry leading the category in the match with four.

The victory earned Dominican Republic a 15th appearance on the podium of the intercontinental tournament. They will play the winner of the match between United States and host Peru, the other semifinalists.

Bethania de la Cruz, Captain of Dominican Republic: “We are very happy with the victory. Congratulations to Puerto Rico for the good job. In spite of being very young they have a lot of power and good ball handling. They put pressure on us and we had to adjust the blocking and strengthen our concentration to achieve the win.”

Marcos Kwiek, Coach of Dominican Republic: “Congratulations to the coach of Puerto Rico for the job he is doing with his team. They are young but with many strengths and complicated us for moments. It is very important to elevate the quality of the teams within our zone to have better competitive level.”

Natalia Valentin, Captain of Puerto Rico: “My team is very young and tried to grow little by little. For moments we were able to be at their level but at the end their blocking was superior and sealed us.”

Javier Gaspar, Coach of Puerto Rico: “There is no doubt it has been a big challenge to play against Dominican Republic, the team with the best level in our region. We tried to play at their level and for moments were took some leads but it was not enough.”