PONCE, Puerto Rico, June 7th, 2024.- Puerto Rico started strong the NORCECA Women’s Final Four dominating Costa Rica in straight sets in their debut at Salvador Dijols Coliseum in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Ricans enforced their skills in serves and attacks over Costa Rica maintaining the lead throughout the whole match in front of an enthusiastic home crowd. The match finished 3-0 in favor of the locals with scores 25-11, 25-14, 25-14.
Puerto Rico led the match in attacks 46-19, blocks 4-0 and serves 12-4 while Costa Rica made fewer unforced errors (13-16).
The top scorer for the host team was outside hitter Stephanie Rivera with 12 points (9 attacks, 1 block and 2 aces) and for Costa Rica was captain and opposite hitter Tatiana Sayles with 6 points (5 attacks and 1 ace).
On the second day of the Round Robin competition Puerto Rico will face Cuba and Costa Rica will play against Mexico.
Juan Carlos Núñez – Coach Puerto Rico: it was an opportunity to watch the group. For me it was again being with the older group and seeing the new generation playing. A group that has been training for three weeks and we wanted to see how we were together with players participating for the first time in this scenario. At least it was a good start to evaluate things and prepare for the next two matches.
Shara Venegas – Captain of Puerto Rico: we are going from less to more. Costa Rica is a team that is raising its level a lot and we knew that it was a good game for us to get into gear as a team. Tomorrow, we play against Cuba, it is a team that has a lot of adrenaline and competition among us. Also, we have some young players with a lot of energy, a desire to learn and a very good vibe, which is helping us to complement each other on the team.
Ronald Pérez – Coach Costa Rica: A very interesting match. Many challenges for us mainly in reception, but I think that for moments we managed to have stability in that aspect. We had a strong opponent in front of us who complicated the game with its serves.
Tatiana Sayles – Captain of Costa Rica: we knew it was a complicated match. Puerto Rico is a very strong team, but we came here to give our best effort. I think we must have more consistency in our game and concentrate more. Tomorrow we are going with everything against Mexico, and we must improve the reception and communicate more.
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