TULSA, Oklahoma, USA, July 20, 2022 – The Dominican Republic survived Puerto Rico’s third-set rally and won its final pool play match 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-22) on Wednesday in a Girls U19 Pan American Cup match at the Cox Business Convention Center in Tulsa.
Dominican Republic (2-1) finished pool play in second place and Puerto Rico (1-2) placed third. Both teams will play in Thursday’s quarterfinals for a berth in Friday semifinals.
Dominican Republic led the stats in spikes (42-32) and had an amazing 13 aces as opposed to six for Puerto Rico. The teams tied in blocks (5-5) and each team had 16 scoring errors.
Puerto Rico put together a serving run in the third set that almost got it to the set victory, but Dominican Republic came back to win.
Dominican opposite Ariana Rodriguez led all scorers with 19 points on 13 attacks and a match-high six aces. Outside hitter Katielle Vargas added 17 points on a match-high 15 kills and two blocks.
Puerto Rican opposite Grace Lopez led her team with 16 points on 11 kills, four aces and one block. Outside hitter Destiny Skerrett had a match-high three blocks.
Wagner Pacheco, coach of Dominican Republic: “Happy with this victory. What Iiked the most was the regularity we were able to keep. Tomorrow we have a tough match against Canada and we need to study them and prepare for that. Very happy.”
Juan Carlos Rodriguez, coach of Puerto Rico: “Our reception did not work properly. Then we tried our best in the third set but could not close it. Tomorrow we go against Mexico trying to advance.”
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