Chile scores first U-18 Pan Am victory

TIJUANA, Mexico, July 5 2011 – Chile earned its first victory at the U-18 Pan American Cup by defeating Costa Rica 3-1 (25-18, 25-16, 22-25, 25-12).

Laura Sotomayor tallied 18 points, while Catalina Meneses finished with 15 and Catalina Pulgar with 14 for the South American team formed by girls under 15 years-old.

Costa Rica had its best set on the third, with a great work by Carmen Amador, Gabriela Arias and Yuliana Gonzalez, who scored 15, 14 and 10 points respectively.

 “We are so happy, this was our first International victory against a bigger team, a U-18 team and noticed that everything goes better in this tournament step by step,” said Sofia Romaguera.

Chilean coach Italo Raggio stated that the Norceca invitation to be part of this competition has given his team a chance for greater exposure as a first step to gain more experience.

“We just want to thank Norceca for inviting us here. This victory was very important for our country and we want to come back and play more tournaments like this because it will help us a lot,” he said.

“We have played with a lot of beginners in this tournament, all our starters are in the National Championship in Costa Rica, but for the ones we brought here is very important to learn and to know how things work at this level,” stated coach Luis Martin Rodríguez.