Torres scores 37 as Puerto Rico losses in in five sets

VARNA, Bulgaria, September 16, 2018 – Puerto Rican Maurice Torres registered a tournament-high 37 points but could not prevent his side from losing to Finland 3-2 (25-19, 25-23, 27-29, 21-25, 15-10) in Pool D of the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship on Sunday.

Torres had 32 kills, four aces and a block while Jonathan Rodriguez and Eddie Rivera added 11 and 4 10 in the losing effort. Elviss Krastins and Urpo Sivula led Finland with 18 and 16 points, respectively.

In Bari, Italy, United States improved to a 4-0 win-loss record in Pool C after a cruising victory in straight sets 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-14) over Cameroon on Sunday.

The winners outscored the African side in aces (9-2) with Taylor Averill leading the way with four of his own.

Matthew Anderson, Taylor Sander and Averill were the best scorers for the USA squad with 9, 9 and 8 points, respectively. David Feughouo had 10 points for Cameroon.

Also in Pool D in Varna, Bulgaria handed Cuba its fourth loss in as many games while dominating in straight sets 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-18).

Nikolay Uchikov led Bulgaria with 18 points while Miguel Gutierrez had 13 as the top Cuban scorer in the match.

In Pool A in Florence, Italy, the Dominican Republic lost to Italy in straight sets 3-0 (25-12, 25-18 25-15). The winners relied on their strong serves as they scored 10 aces to zero y the losers.

Osmany Juantorena and Ivan Zaytsev led Italy with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Henry Lopez had 9 points for the Dominican Republic.

By dropping their records to 0-4, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Dominican Republic were eliminated without chances of advancing to the second round of the event.