Tuesday, March 4, 1997

Spikers sweep Puerto Rican national team

By NICK ZULOVICH
Collegian Sports Writer

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The Puerto Rican national team could have showed to the Hall of Fame Classic and been just happy to be there. But the pride of its country would let it do nothing of the sort.

Penn State's Sergio Pampena and Daniel Pollock go up for the block against Edgardo Dennis from the Puerto Rican National Team. Penn State won the championship match against Puerto Rico 3-0 during the 10th Annual Volleyball Hall of Fame Classic Tournament. (Collegian Photo / Laura Chiles - click for full size image)

The Puerto Rican national team made its first appearance in the Hall of Fame Classic during the weekend, advancing to the championship game against Penn State. The team is made up mostly of players age 17 and 18 but did have two veterans, Felipe Ralat and Ricardo Soler, who played college volleyball at Indiana-Purdue-Ft. Wayne.

Puerto Rican coach Hector Rentas, who spoke through interpreter and assistant coach Carlos Arroyo, said the team he brought to Springfield only practiced together about seven times prior to the tournament. He said he jumped at the chance to find out what his team could do.

"It's a great invitation for the team," Rentas said. "It's a great time to test our young players. This kind of exchange between teams helps us develop a better team for the future, which is our main goal."

What was an added reinforcement for the Puerto Rican team was even though it was playing thousands of miles from home, there was no lack of fan support.

Springfield coach Sean Byron said in western Massachusetts and northern Connecticut there is a high concentration of people of Puerto Rican decent. Consequently, fans came in droves both Friday and Saturday to see the volleyball team from their home country.

That fan support helped Puerto Rico make quick work of host Springfield, 15-6, 15-4, 15-4. Penn State assistant coach Dennis Hohenshelt was scouting the match and said Puerto Rico was full of talent but not necessarily cohesiveness.

"It was good for them to get the Springfield match under their belt," Hohenshelt said. "They're a team that plays with a lot of emotion and use it to control the momentum of a match."

Hohenshelt said the Nittany Lions did a good job of keeping the enthusiastic Puerto Rican fans a bit quieter. He said the Puerto Rican team had a decent game plan to attack the Penn State middle blockers, but the Lions just did a better job of executing.

Rentas said his team was put into a bad situation because of a lack of practice time. Penn State had five service aces in the championship match, mostly due to the Puerto Rican players not being used to playing together.

Although Penn State swept Puerto Rico, Rentas said the weekend was a building block to a better future both for the national team program and the individual abilities of each player.

"Being able to come up to the states at such a young age and representing their native island is their biggest thrill in their short volleyball careers," Rentas said. "They are just making their first step in this sport, and to play in this tournament is something they'll always remember."