Czech Republic
Czech Republic was guided by the balanced setting of Marie Kurkova, who used her team-mates at her best. The home spectators cheered the team to beat their obvious tenseness and from the third set onward Puerto Rico were no more able to block the opponents’ action. Coach Carlos Cruz asked all his girls to perform their debut in this match, trying but not finding a way out thanks to fresh power from the bench.
Czech Republic Michaela Mlejnkova headed the best scorers with 16 points, while the best spiker from Puerto Rico was Kanisha Jimenez, who marked 11 points.
Puerto Rico captain Marie Victoria Pilar: “We expected to win of course but we didn’t play well. Now we have to work hard to win the next match.”
Puerto Rico coach Carlos J. Cruz: “First of all I want to congratulate Czech Republic for the win. Our reception was not enough good to perform better than them. I can say we have to grow in the next matches and look forward.”
Czech Republic coach Ondrej Marek: “We thought we could win against Puerto Rico, but we started with too many mistakes, we had problems, it took us time to set up our way of playing.”
Czech Republic captain Lucie Herbockova: “We were too nervous, we played our game only in the third and fourth set. We hope to play better in the next days, the atmosphere here is fantastic and will push us a lot.”
To read more news from this competition click on Junior World Championship 2013 W.
