Dominican Republic to play fifth consecutive CACG title match

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, July 24, 2018.- Dominican Republic will play their fifth consecutive title match of the women’s volleyball tournament at the 2018 Barranquilla XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games after beating Puerto Rico in semifinals 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-19) at Humberto Perea Collesium.

Defending champion Dominican Republic will seek their fifth consecutive title and seventh overall, when they face host Colombia in their eighth gold medal match at the Games.

Dominicans had a demanding first set on Puerto Rico’s offense and blocking strategy, followed by no real danger to seal their victory in straight sets.

Dominican Republic managed to control all the elements of the game, but specially the blocking category with 10-2 margin. They prevailed over Puerto Rico with 43-35 advantage in kills and by a slim 3-2 margin in aces. In errors, Dominican Republic finished with 16 and Puerto Rico with 19.

Opposite player Gaila Gonzalez of Dominican Republic topped all scorers with 17 points; wing spikers Brayelin Martinez and Prisilla Rivera contributed with 11 points for the win. Wing spiker Pilar Victoria scored 12 points as the only Puerto Rican player with double-figures.

Prisilla Rivera captain of Dominican Republic indicated that her team was focused on winning “we has our goal very clear and the strategy to execute. We have been going step by step, one game at a time to reach our goal of winning the gold, we don’t think in silver. It’s not by chance that we have four Central American titles. Puerto Rico always plays good games against us, but the story is always the same without undemanding them”.

Brazilian Marcos Kwiek coach of Dominican Republic said facing Puerto Rico is always a challenge “they know each other well, since the U-18 category. Today’s outcome was a happy one, our serving was good, as well as our blocking at the zone and better adjusted, and we didn’t waste the counterattacks, and our defense worked. It wasn’t an easy match despite finishing in three sets” About facing Colombia he added “it will be a good match, they are hosting the event; we have to study them in no time”.

Puerto Rican coach Javier Gaspar said “you shouldn’t give so much advantage to such a experimented team like Dominican Republic. We were close in the first set, but the other two sets they were out of reach, they slipped away. They were really consistent and we weren’t; we have different deficiencies in every match, sometimes the opposite players don’t respond, in others it’s the middle blockers and in others our defense; you can’t expect to win against a high leveled team like Dominican Republic. My team is young and when we are able to perform consistently we will have the results everyone back home wants. We will study Mexico tonight and focus on winning the medal”.