Arecibo, Puerto Rico, August 28, 2010 – Puerto Rico won the first of two qualification matches for the 2011 FIVB World League with world No. 10 China, taking the match 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-21, 25-23) in front of 6,000 fans in the Manuel “Petaca” Iguina coliseum in Arecibo on Saturday.

In the first set, both teams played hard with the set score tied for most of the early exchanges. The home team lead at both technical timeouts with the Puerto Rico captain Hector Soto dominant on attack, while China used their traditional strong defence to stay in the set. At 20-20, two strong attacks from Wiejum Zhong lead China to win the set 25-22.

The home team started the second set with excellent offensive control but continued to have problems at the service line. Despite those problems though, Puerto Rico still led at the second technical timeout 16-9, however, China did not surrender and fought back thanks to excellent attacking play from Zhong and Qiong Shen. Puerto Rico eventually sealed the set 25-21 thanks to two booming spikes from Soto.

Puerto Rico continued their momentum into the third set, leading again at both technical time outs. Soto, Víctor Rivera & Enrique Escalante lead their offence not giving China a look in, as Puerto Rico reduced their error count on serve to dominate the set 25-21.

The fourth set started with China reinvigorated, thanks to some great Zhong & Yu Dawei combinations on attack and offensive- At 10-8 to China the set hung in the balance , but 20-15, it looked like the game will go to a deciding set. However, some fervent home support helped Puerto Rico tie the set at 20-20 before the great defensive work of libero Harry Rosario and the effective setting of Angel Perez they were the key to Puerto Rico clinching the final set 25-23 and consequently the match.

Leading the scorers for Puerto Rico was Soto with 28 points and Víctor Rivera with 15 while Zhi Yuan tallied 13 for China.

The next match between these two teams will take place on Sunday at 20:00 local time (00:00 GMT).