HAVANA, Cuba, October 6, 2022.- Mexico defeated Haiti 3-0 (26-24, 25-18, 25-17) and became the third team to qualify to Friday’s semifinals at the Men’s U21 Pan American Cup at Ciudad Deportiva.
The Mexican team was able to control a resilient Caribbean squad, even more so after a close first set, and showed superiority with advantage of 45-31 in attacks, 6-4 in blocks and 5-0 in serves, but committing four more errors (24-20).
Mexican opposite hitter Ángel Iván Domínguez led all scorers with 17 points, while his teammate outside hitter Leonardo Maldonado added 13.
For Haiti, with double figures was outside hitter Dieulengy (12) and opposite Estakend Beauvoir (10).
Jorge Alberto Romero, head coach of Mexico said “we are glad because we reached the quarter finals victorious, with one match lost but with a good performance, we are aware that all the teams here are looking for the qualification, there was no weak team. Hati is a warrior, the battle every point, we don’t know how they do it, but they give there all and they are team that makes a match difficult”.
“It was a useful match, the players didn’t lose hope, they were focused with order in blocking and defense for everything come out well and thank God we are in the semifinals”.
Captain Jorge Ibarra expressed “we are very happy, it’s something we’ve been working on for a long time, our goal as a team is to reach the podium. We worked together and we studied our opponent, and we executed what we were instructed to do. We maintained calm, we didn’t lose our head to go one point at a time. There are moments of pressure when you don’t know how to act and you get lost, and that is when the opponent come on top”.
Junior Siecle, head coach of Haiti explained “the entire match was close, but my team is very young, a new experience competing at Norceca tournaments. They also need a psychological preparation to reach their goals. We are still in the fight, we know that now it’s harder, but we are up for the fight”.
Captain Relis, was afflicted “we had hopes, we had a good first set, but we let it escape, we lost it and that was a little disappointing, and our team’s performance dropped, but we will continue to battle”.
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