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TORONTO, Canada, July 22, 2015 – Puerto Rico pulled an
astonishing come-from-behind victory over Cuba in five sets 3-2
(20-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-20, 15-11) to reach the semifinals of
the men’s volleyball tournament at the Pan American Games on
Wednesday night.
Despite losing the services of big offensive weapon Steven
Morales, who suffered a broken ankle halfway the third set, the
Puerto Rican side accomplished an improbable victory to advance
to a semifinal match against two-time defending champions Brazil
on Friday.
Veteran Hector Soto was the top offensive contributor for Puerto
Rico with 20 points while Mannix Roman and Jackson Rivera added
14 and 11 points, respectively. Jean Ortiz came off the bench to
sub for Morales and contributed 9 valuable points in the
victory.
Cuba’s Rolando Cepeda and Javier Jimenez finished with 24 and 22
points, respectively, in the losing effort. Luis Tomas Sosa
closed with 11 points.
Both teams scored with 9 blocks and 3 aces apiece. Puerto Rico
led in attacks 68-64 and Cuba made 27 errors, just one more than
the winners of the close contest.
Javier Gaspar, Coach of Puerto Rico: “We won in an extremely
difficult moment for us. We did not play like we do during the
first two sets, but we did an excellent job, we did the
adjustments and the team responded. After the injury suffered by
Steven (Morales, ankle) the boys were more focused and inspired
to win because of him. We dedicate this victory to him and we
wish him a speedy recovery.”
Jean Ortiz, Player of Puerto Rico: “All our prayers are with him
(Steven Morales). We prayed for him after he was taken by the
First Aid Personnel and left the court (to be taken to the
hospital).”
Hector Soto, Captain of Puerto Rico: “We were 0-2, but we kept
positive. We never thought about losing. We knew that we were
not playing at our level. The injury suffered by Steven and the
substitutions of some players changed everything in the game and
we began to play with more energy. That was the key.
Unfortunately Steven got injured but that situation made us to
be resilient. Being finally in contention for a medal is a
special sensation for me.”
Rolando Cepeda, Captain of Cuba: It was a good match. After the
second set, Puerto Rico grew up a lot. I am sorry for losing the
match. We were winning it 2-0 and after that set we lost our
concentration. That lack of concentration caused us to lose it.”
Rodolfo Sánchez, Coach of Cuba: “These are things that usually
happen. We need to be going on to get more experience from this.
Unfortunately we could not finish the match when it was
practically won. I don’t know what happened, they just went down
pretty soon and the ones who should take the responsibility to
help the team to win didn’t make it.” |
