MEXICO GETS IN TO THE TOP 4, DEFEATS PUERTO RICO 3-0

Mexican libero Kaomi Solis, celebrates her team's victory.

TIJUANA, Baja California.- Mexico recovered from the loss against Argentina, and defeated Puerto Rico in the quarterfinals round 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 28-26) and qualified to the semifinals in the U18 Girls Pan American Cup.

Mexico, whose best scorers were Samantha Bricio, with 18 points, and Lizbeth Sainz, with 11, will match Dominican Republic in the semifinal this thursday at 8:00 PM, local time. Puerto Rico’s Pilar Marie Victoria and Kanisha Jimenez, finished with 12 and 10 units respectively.

Both teams held a very tough match at the beginning. The host team came from behind to take the first set with a strong and powerful work by Bricio, who converted the key points. 

“We failed a lot of services on the first set but We were into the game with a lot of enthusiasm”, said Mexico’s captain Alicia Castro.

“We could not dominate our pass, and that was important”, stated Jizzyan Gesualdo. “We had 5 or 6 points in advantage, buit in the end We also failed in the reception”, said Puerto Rico’s coach Eric Gonzalez.

Meanwhile, for Victor Garcia this was a “beautiful match in which sometimes you are up in th score, but at the same time, you also fell down, and miss the chance to win. It happens at this level, We had some fouls on the third set, but were fortunate”.