Carolina, Puerto Rico, July 5, 2015 - Bulgaria hold out a Puerto Rico thrilling come back in a five setter, to win 3-2 (19-25, 25-27, 25-20, 25-18, 14-16) over the hosting team at the World Grand Prix in pool K.
Bulgaria finish the weekend as a third team of the pool K at the 2015 World Grand Prix with 3 points, while Puerto Rico remain a leader with 7 points despite the today's loss. The best scorers of the winning team were captain Eva Yaneva with 22 and Yuliya Stoyanova with 20, while Ricans were led by Karina Ocasio, who remain best scorer of the match with 26 points.
Eva Yaneva recorded 19 points in attack and 3 blocks, as well as Yuliya Stoyanova and Gabriela Koeva. Two blocks were added by Gergana Dimitrova and Mira Todorova, who also served 3 aces.
Ocasio scored 21 points in attack, one ace serve and 4 blocks. Same number of kill blocks was scored by Aurea Cruz, while Stephanie Enright added 5 aces.
Puerto Rico outscored Bulgaria in attack 62-58, block 19-14 and serve 9-6, but they also gave the opponent a whole set won by their own errors (28).
Bulgarians stormed in the match taking the lead in the early stages to win the first set 25-20. Ricans fought back in the next part, playing point by point, but the extended set goes again to Bulgaria at 27-25.
Puerto Rico got up from their knees in the next set, to finish it with 25-20. Bulgaria kept the lead in the 4th set until the second technical time out, but Puerto Rico made a come back to bring a tie break with a high 25-18. Tie break opened with Ricans leading by two until 12-10 when Bulgarians managed to tie the score and go 15-14 ahead. Bulgaria used their first match point to seal the deal.
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