SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica, November 9, 2025. – Puerto Rico claimed the bronze medal at the 2025 NORCECA Girls’ U17 Continental Championship, defeating the Dominican Republic 3-1 (25-22, 29-27, 11-25, 25-19) on Sunday at the Gimnasio Nacional in San José, Costa Rica.
This marks Puerto Rico’s second medal in the tournament’s history, after winning silver in the inaugural 2023 edition. Puerto Rico closed the event with a 3-3 record, while the Dominican Republic finished 3-2.
Puerto Rico held the advantage in attacks (47-38), blocks (9-7), and service points (11-10), though they committed more errors than the Dominicans (38-24).
Anna Aquino led Puerto Rico’s offense with 19 points (17 kills, 2 blocks), followed by Kelysha Domínguez with 15 points (11 kills, 1 block, 3 aces) and Carinialys Román with 13 points (10 kills, 3 aces). Rayni Mondesi of the Dominican Republic topped all scorers with 25 points (22 kills, 1 block, 2 aces).
Puerto Rico started strong in the first set, building a six-point lead (16-10) with the attacking trio of Domínguez, Román, and Aquino. Despite a late surge from Mondesi and Leandry Almonte, who closed the gap to two points (21-23), Puerto Rico held firm and sealed the set with a Dominican reception error followed by a kill from Domínguez.
The second set featured intense back-and-forth action. The Dominican Republic rallied from a 9-15 deficit to trail by one (14-15) thanks to Paola Dionicio’s kill and Mondesi’s ace. With Puerto Rico leading 24-23, Mondesi scored again to spark a dramatic exchange of set points, but Puerto Rico eventually prevailed 29-27 after Aquino’s decisive attack off the Dominican block.
Dominican blocking proved key in the third set as they stormed past Puerto Rico, capitalizing on opponent errors and Almonte’s service pressure to comfortably take the set 25-11 and forcing a fourth set.
The fourth set was fiercely contested. After a 9-all tie, Rosaris Peña scored two consecutive aces to give the Dominican Republic the lead midway through. Puerto Rico mounted a spectacular comeback from a five-point deficit to even the score at 18, then never looked back. Aquino’s powerful spike off Mondesi’s block sealed the bronze medal victory for Puerto Rico.
Ernesto Ricolt, Head Coach of Puerto Rico, said with excitement: “It was a tremendous match; we almost let it slip away. The Dominican Republic is a great team with tall players. Honestly, we deserved this victory. We’ve worked hard with the little time we had.”
Anna Aquino, Puerto Rico’s top scorer and the player who scored the winning point, said: “This was a team effort. I’m very proud of my teammates and our coaches, who did an excellent job. It feels amazing, I also scored the decisive point in the other World Championship qualifier.”
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