WINNIPEG, Canada, June 7, 2008.- Mexico and Dominican Republic battled until the end to bring the bronze medal back home. After 5 close sets, Dominican Republic closed their participation to the 2008 Pan American Cup with a win. The set scores were 25-23, 21-25, 25-23, 18-25, 15-12.

It was a very tight game as no team was able to create a comfortable gap for themselves. The rallies were long and teams kept exchanging the points, creating an exciting match that lasted almost 2 hours. The Mexican setter was impressive at finding his middles who managed to play around the Dominican Republic block. But it was not enough to say fiesta yet. The Dominican stepped up their game in the fifth set and stole the medal.

Leading the Dominican Republic crew was captain Elvis Contreras with 26 points. He was followed by Victor Batista, 21 points, Jose Caceres, 16 points and Eduardo Concepcion, 15 points.  Mexican Irving Bricio earned 19 points and his middle player Tomas Aguilera got 17 points.

“This was a very important win for us. We needed this victory to be thirteen and qualified for the America Cup next year. It ends the tournament on a good note” said happy coach Jacinto Campechano.

Leader Elvis Contreras started by congratulating the Mexican team for this great game and added: “It was a very intense game. We started the match slow but all the guys played well until the end.”