Vitaliy Virovodin of Kazakhstan punches through the block of Puerto Rico's Kevin Lopez, Pedro Nieves and Steven Morales.
Kozani, Greece, June 19, 2016 - Puerto Rico registered their first win of the season, seeing off Kazakhstan 3-0 (29-27, 25-19, 25-21) in Group 3 of the FIVB World League.
The game could have developed completely differently, had Kazakhstan capitalised on four set balls in the first set. The Asian side had trailed by as many as five points at 19-14 before rallying back to tie the score at 22-22. Puerto Rico held on, though, to sieze their chance for an early lead after a couple of kills by Steven Morales followed by a wide attack from Maxim Mamedov.
The Kazakhstan block was not quite as efficient as it had been the previous day against Chinese Taipei and Puerto Rico dominated the attacking with a 51% (44/86) to 43% (37/87) kill rate.
Steven Morales scored an impressive 25 points for Puerto Rico, including 23/37 kills for 62%. Sequiel Sanchez added another 14 points (11/17 for 65% in attacking).
Vitaliy Vorivodin was Kazakhstan's best scorer with 13 points.