Peru defeated Trinidad and Tobago in three straight sets, 25-15, 25-10, 25-14, to advance to the seventh-place play-off at the XVIII Pan American Cup in Peru on Friday.
The host team was scheduled to face Cuba last night while the Calypso Spikers were expected to be up against Mexico for ninth place in the tournament.
The Peruvians, backed by hundreds of fans at the Coliseo Cerrado, got 18 points from Angela Leiva, while Leslie Leyva finished with 10 and captain Karla Ortiz 9 points in their winning effort.
The T&T women were led by Kiune Fletcher with 9 and captain Darlene Ramdin 8.
Peru dominated the attack 37-18, 6-4 blocking and serving 11-1 and committed 16 errors to the 21 by their opponents.
After the match, Leiva, Peru’s top scorer, said, “We are happy with the win. We came to get the result and we thank the people of Chiclayo who came to support us. It took us a while to adapt to the game of T&T, but when we did we made a better game.”
Leyda, the Peru captain, added, “It was a complicated game because of the game of T&T. Sometimes we could not keep our rhythm and we fell to the rhythm of them. We know that we have to correct some things before the Cuba match, which will be very complicated.”
Peru kept a close eye on their Cuban counterparts, who whipped them in five sets in the group stage in Trujillo, during the proceedings as well.
Speaking afterwards, Peru coach Francisco Hervás admitted T&T gave his team a good challenge.
“The truth is that it has not been the match I was looking for, but I am very happy. It was a victory, but I would have liked to find more intensity and keep it in our field. T&T did its job, but we would have liked to be a little more aggressive.”