Samokov, July 12, 2015 – Bulgaria coach Dragan Nesic believes that his side’s 3-0 win over Puerto Rico (28-26, 25-20, 25-15) is “just the beginning” for his young squad.
“I congratulate all girls in my team,” said Nesic. “Today I choose only the young players that will play on the FIVB World Championship in Turkey later this summer. I believe that this is only the beginning for them and they will play in very good teams, like our big players now. This is the only way for us to make a very serious team. Today they can to be happy with this victory, but tomorrow they need to think for the preparation to the World Championship.”
Bulgaria setter Petya Barakova added: “All of us played well today. In this starting line-up we played for the first time and I’m happy that we started with a victory against strong team like Puerto Rico. I hope that this will continuing in the World Championship. Last days I was sick, but today everything was okay. The atmosphere in team is great. We support one each other and the results are coming. Our performance in World Grand Prix 2015 was good.”
Jose Mieles, coach of Puerto Rico said: “I’m not happy with our performance today. Our goal was to finish first place in the pool. Congratulations to Bulgaria, they played very well. In the all game they managed very high level on performance. Our team travels to Toronto tomorrow for the Panamericanas Games, and after that we will return to Europe for the Final Four in Poland. Our main goal in Poland is to win the semifinal, and to qualify for the first division of World Grand Prix.”
Yarimar Rosa, captain of Puerto Rico said: “Today we were too relaxed. We need to learn from this match. It doesn’t matter that we had already qualified for the next round, we need to forget about that and to play for win in every single match.”