Juncos, Puerto Rico, September 17, 2015 - While the Dominican captain chose to highlight their mental strength to overcome Peru and move to semifinals, coach Wagner Pacheco placed his sight forward and advised the team is now going for a medal.
Natalia Málaga, Peru coach: “The girls played well on the final set, but we should have done that from the very beginning. It’s difficult for me to be happy with that. We have been working for this and we cannot play only one stage and then forget how to do it. I hope this will work as an experience for our players, to grow from this. We must show our spirit from the beginning. It’s a challenge for me to rebuild that spirit, but in the end it will be up to the players to be ready for that.”
Brayelin Martínez, Dominican Republic captain: “We started the game absolutely focused and that was vital. On a technical matter, our defence was very important as well. But our determination to overcome the pressure of winning this match was very important; we could control their best players at first and we kept a strong mental attitude. Now we have to relax, get some rest and be focused for tomorrow.”
Wagner Pacheco, Dominican Republic coach: “We knew in advance it was going to be a hard game as we weren’t qualified at all. However, we played two very good first sets and although we failed a lot in the third, almost as much as on the rest of the game, we could close it. We’re ecstatic - this is very important for a small country like the Dominican Republic. We fulfilled our first goal of entering the second round, then this goal of reaching semifinals and now, for a medal.”