competition system

The Puerto Rican Women’s U20 side makes a welcome return to the World
Championship for the fist time since 1989 when they finished 15th.

They have been traditionally strong competitors in the regional NORCECA
tournaments, finishing unbeaten against the likes of the Dominican Republic,
Mexico, USA, Cuba, Canada and Barbados as recent as last summer.

They should carry that form onto the world stage especially with the likes of
promising opposite Karina Ocasio, who was named the MVP at the NORCECA
tournament and played in last year’s senior World Championship, where Puerto
Rico finished 10th.

Ocasio is the only member of the U20 side who has senior experience. Tatiana
Encarnacion, Dolly Melendez, Vilmarie Mojica and Dariam Acevedo all had a
taste of the 2002 World Championship.

With that sort of experience one expects this team to go further than their
own prediction of qualifying for the last eight before working on the elite
four.

Team coach is the experienced Luis “Papo” Garcia, assisted by Carlos Nuñez.