MEXICALI, Baja California, May 30, 2008.- Sidarka Nunez scored five of her 37 points in the fifth set leading the Dominican Republic to a victory over USA by score of 20-25, 25-18, 25-27, 25-23, 15-8 in Pool A of the Women’s Pan American Cup.

Dominican Milagros Cabral had 17 points including five blocks, and Cindy Rondon and Annerys Vargas added 14 and 10 respectively.

Alexis Crimes was the best American with 22 tallies and Tracy Stalls added 17 including 6 blocks. Cynthia Barboza had 10 and Kristin Richards and Heather Hughes each had 9.

“It was a good experience for our young players,” said Tom Hogan, the USA coach. “It is good for them to be in pressure situations. I want to congratulate the Dominican Republic because their experience showed at the end.”

“I think we committed too many errors in our reception during the first half of the match, but we recovered in time to make the adjustments,” said Beato Miguel Cruz, the Dominican coach. “Once our reception improved we could use our strong attack and blocked much better.”

“It is a great victory for us because we have taken a big step towards next year’s World Grand Prix taking in consideration the composition of our pool,” added Cruz. “By defeating USA we have taken out of the way our main rival.”