NORCECA Pan-American Cup 2017
- June 15-26, 2017
- Lima, Peru
- Schedule/Results
Group A
Puerto Rico 3, Venezuela 0 (25-14, 25-21, 25-16)
Columbia 3, Mexico 2 (23-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-20, 15-9)
United States 3, Argentina 0 (27-25, 25-14, 25-23)
The United States made it through Pool A unscathed, claiming the top spot in the group with a sweep of Argentina on Wednesday. With the win. a 5-0 record and the top spot, the Americans earn a bye to the semifinals.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rico claimed second place in the pool and a bye to the quarterfinals with a sweep of Venezuela.
Puerto Rico 3, Venezuela 0
Puerto Rico rested stars Daly Santana and Pilar Victoria, but still made quick work of the Venezuelans, who also altered their lineup for the match.
Shirley Ferrer filled the scoring gap for the Puerto Ricans with 17 points, while Naomi Santos added 11 points. Ferrer tallied a match-high 15 kills and two blocks, while Santos served up four aces in addition to her seven kills.
“Over this first phase we have come from less to more, the team is getting confidence and our numbers are getting closer and closer to the goal we have for the tournament,” Puerto Rican coach Javier Gaspar said. “I know in the next phase we are going to need more consistency in the reception to allow the flow of the offense and to continue working in the serve, blocking and defense which allowed us to have two good matches with United States and Argentina.”
Venezuela outblocked Puerto Rico 7-5, but were outdone in all other phases of the game. Puerto Rico downed 37 kills (to 22) and served up eight aces (to 2), while committing five less errors (25-20).
Luz Delfines led Venezuela with 11 points, all on kills, while Sharlin Bidean managed eight points, with four kills and four blocks.
“Today we have made some changes in the starting lineup because we want to see the performance of all athletes in court,” Venezuelan coach Jhosvanny Chambers said. “I think at the end of the first phase many things have gone well and that’s the motive of the competition, to learn as much as possible since our goal is the World Grand Prix we will host in Venezuela.”
Columbia 3, Mexico 2
Columbia came from down 0-2 in the match to defeat Mexico in a five-set thriller. The Columbians limited their errors (20) and put up 14 blocks in the victory. The Mexicans managed 65 kills (to 59), but could not make up for the other shortcomings.
Dayana Segovia, Giselle Perez and Maria Margarita Martinez each tallied 18 points to lead Columbia, while Yeisy Soto added 10. Martinez put down 16 kills, while Perez added 15 and Segovia managed 14 putaways and four blocks.
Andrea Rangel paced all hitters with 26 points, while Kathya Garcia (18) and Jocelyn Urias (13) followed. Rangel tallied a match-high 25 kills.
United States 3, Argentina 0
The United States got 14 kills from Annie Drews and 10 from Madison Kingdon in a sweep of Argentina Wednesday. The Americans outblocked their foes 7-5, outserved them 5-4 and put up nine more kills (43-34) in the victory.
“Argentina presented a different formation than what we expected but these are situations you have to learn how to control,” Drews said. “They did a good job at blocking and we tried to play our game. We established our offense and hopefully we can keep improving and learning to control the little details.”
Drews totaled 16 points, adding in a pair of blocks, while Kingdon served up an ace to go with her putaways. Micha Hancock was back in the setter’s role and added two more aces to her impressive Pan Am tally.
Paula Yamila Nizetich scored 14 points to lead Argentina, managing 11 kills, two aces and a block. Her nearest teammate Tanya Acosta added nine points, all on kills.
“Argentina came from less to more but that also happened with the level of our opponent,” Nizetich said. “Today we couldn’t have the kind of game we wanted because we have several players who are sick and had to rotate the formation and couldn’t press with the serve and couldn’t react to their fast tempo. For the upcoming matches we will be better and we will show our real rhythm,”
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