Yokohama, Japan, September 30, 2018 - Mexico emerged as 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-23) victors from a touch-and-go battle against Argentina at the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship on Sunday, and captain Andrea Rangel accredited the win to a strong mental resolve.
Mexico captain Andrea Rangel: I am very happy with this result, we knew this wasn’t going to be an easy match. Argentina are big rivals for us, but we were able to believe in what we have been practising. That is why we were able to put out a very strong service today, and we will continue believing in what we have prepared.
Mexico coach Ricardo Naranjo: Today’s game was a very tough one, but we managed to win. Argentina is one of the elite countries in world volleyball and they produce very good players. Unfortunately yesterday was not our day, but in preparation for today’s match we especially focused on mental aspects, and as a result we were able to recover from that defeat.
Argentina coach Guillermo Orduna: First of all I’d like to congratulate Mexico - they put in a very big performance today, and especially after suffering their defeat yesterday they recovered well and were worthy of the win. Mexico were ahead of us in terms of attacking. Their three wing spikers were especially good, and we couldn’t really contain the Mexican attack today. The second and third sets were neck-and-neck, but we were not able to win because Mexico were able to deliver good service when they needed. That kept the pressure on us and was why we couldn’t get the result we wanted.
Argentina captain Emilce Sosa: First of all I’d like to say congratulations to Mexico, they played a very big game. Our attacking didn’t go the way we had thought, but this is a long competition and so now we will just focus on the next matches.