Sofia Maldonado hit 31 points in attack at a 53% success rate, including the match winner, and put up three kill blocks to emerge as the best scorer of the game. 22-year-old outside hitter Melanie Guadalupe Parra contributed another 18 points, including one ace and four kill blocks. Overall, the Mexican team piled up an impressive number of 17 kill blocks in the game, against seven from Colombia, and that made the biggest difference in the match. As many as nine of those stuffs were authored by middle blocker and captain Jocelyn Urias, who finished with a total of 11 points.
“It feels amazing! We started really well in our first games, but we couldn’t really get that win, because China and the Dominican Republic are very good teams, but we knew we had to come strong in this game, because it was going to be a big fight, and we are glad that we took the win,” Urias told VBTV. “We had to keep very calm as we had to keep fighting for every point. Maybe we were motivated and we knew we had to come here with a lot of energy.”
Colombia made a lot fewer unforced errors than Mexico – 19-29 – and also outperformed the opponents in serving by 7-2 in aces, but stopped just short of finding their way to their first ever World Championship victory and stayed winless across the eight matches played at this and at the previous editions. They were led by 22-year-old outside Ana Karina Olaya with 27 points. Middle Valerin Carabali fired two aces and hit 14 points at a 67% success rate in swinging to finish with a total of 17 points. Her cross-court teammate Melissa Rangel also delivered a couple of aces and raised three kill blocks to reach the double digits with a total of 10 points, while the other 22-year-old outside Laura Vanessa Grajales Pascua signed off with 14 points.
