Dominicans show power against Mexico

Havana, Cuba, March 17, 2015 – Dominican Republic, the reigning NORCECA champions, overpowered Mexico 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 25-16) in the opening day of the Girls’ U18 Pan American Cup at the Coliseum of the Sports City.

Over the 69 minutes of the match between two of the four already qualified teams in Pool A the World Championship, the Dominicans dominated their rivals in spikes (34-30), blocks (7-4), and services (4-0) with an outstanding performance by the opposite hitter Massiel Matos (16), followed by the outside hitter Natalia Martínez (10). On the Mexican side, Kathya Garcia (9) was the top scorer.

Brazilian Alexandre Ceccato, Dominican Republic’s coach, admitted his own surprise for the performance of his pupils as they have not played since last October. “In the first set Mexico played very well, they didn’t do better because they failed the service too much at the beginning. However, my team improved the spike and it made us easy to win.”

The Dominican captain, Yokaty Pérez, rated the match a good ones and she hopes her team can do much better tomorrow. “We were able to keep the performance and get the win. I think we excelled for our power, strong attack, and defence.”

Fir the Cuban, Ricardo Naranjo, coach of Mexico the result didn’t come as a surprise. “We met one of the top teams in the NORCECA rankings so we knew it would be a hard clash. My girls played the first set with power, a lot of intelligence and character. However, the rest of the game they lacked the required preparation to play against a team like the Dominican. I think we could see well our team is made up of players who are playing for the first time; that’s why we are happy, although we are not satisfied.”

Karin Flores, the Mexican captain, stated that the match “was a little weak from our side, but indeed we have many players who are rookies; although this tournament is mainly preparatory and it will allow our coaches to know who would become members of the team in the World Championship, for which we are already qualified.”