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CÓRDOBA, Mexico, October 10, 2015 - Puerto Rico won the bronze
medal after beating Mexico in three sets by scores of 25-23,
25-21 and 25-19.
Jackson Rivera yand Maurice Torres scored 13 puntos apiece,
while Eddie Rivera closed with 11 (2 aces) for Puerto Rico. On
the Mexican side, Jorge Barajas tallied15.
Puerto Rico finished with a slight 3-2 blocking advantage. Both
teams tied in collective aces by serving 3 each.
The coach of Puerto Rico, Javier Gaspar remarked that part of
the key for the victory was in their reception.
“Congratulations to Mexico, they have done a pretty good job
with this new group of players. In our case, we had our best
reception of the tournament. We were very consistent. We
struggled a little bit to work against the mexican team plays.
But we served very well and concerning the our complex 2, our
counter attack, had a better effect, and that made a
difference,” said Gaspar.
“Puerto Rico had a good result. Played a very organized match.
They put pressure on us with their srvices and worked with a
good blocking strategy. I think that after playing five sets
yesterday against Canada it really made us feel tired along with
the little time of preparation we had before this event,”
Roberto Vilches, coach of Mexico, explained.
“We were stronger offensively. This is the first time we play
against this Mexican team with a roster of young and new
players, we had not seen them before. They fought hard a lot and
were very consistent in our attack. We reached the goal to
qualify to the Pre-Olympic tournament,” Hector Soto, captain of
Puerto Rico said.
“Congratulations to Puerto Rico for this match. We didn’t know
how to keep the advantage. The fans were supporting us and that
was a great advantage, but we could not get the best of it.
Puerto Rico played a ta good level. We are a young team and
learned a lot from this experience, we reached the goal to
qualify to the Pre-Olympic competition and now we have to work
harder,” Jorge Barajas, captain of Mexico mentioned. |
