MATCH INFO

Niterói, Brazil, August 6, 2011 – Bulgaria beat Puerto Rico, 3-0 (25-15, 25-12, 25-18) in the final match on Saturday at Caio Martins gymnasium, to win its first match of the FIVB Volleyball Men's Junior World Championship.

After an opening Pool H loss to Belgium on Friday, Bulgaria improves to 1-1 and will need to defeat Japan on Sunday if it hopes to play for ninth place in Niteroi. Puerto Rico (0-2) will play Germany (1-1) in the other Pool H match on Sunday.

Bulgaria led the way in attacks (32-23), blocks (10-5) and aces (9-1). It also scored 24 points on Puerto Rico's errors while committing 16.

Bulgaria's Ventsislav Trifonov led all scorers with 13 points on a match-high eight spikes, three blocks and two service aces. Zlatan Yordanov added 12 points on seven attacks, one block and a match-high four aces.

Puerto Rico got seven points each from Jose Ribas, Ricardo Archilla and Steven Morales.

Bulgaria took an 8-4 advantage at the first technical timeout (TTO) of the first set and extended their lead to 16-8 at the second TTO. Leading 19-11, Bulgaria’s Vetsislav Ragin scored with a spike and Bulgaria scored the next three points, including two more attacks, to lead 23-11. Bulgaria reached set point at 24-12, but Puerto Rico scored three straight points on Bulgaria’s serving error and spikes from Archilla and Rivera before Bulgaria won the set with an attack from Ventsislav Trifonov.

The second set started close. With the score tied at 7-7, Bulgaria took the 8-7 lead at the first TTO on an ace by Ragin. But Bulgaria came out of the break and scored two more points to lead 10-7. Still leading 15-11, Bulgaria scored six straight points behind the serve of Ilyan Bozhkov, who had an ace on the way to Bulgaria taking a 21-11 lead. Puerto Rico scored its final point of the set on a block by Noah Emmanuel Marrero and Jose Ribas.

Bulgaria took a 7-2 lead in the third set, but Puerto Rico came back to score four straight points behind the serving of Morales, who had an ace in the run. Bulgaria took an 8-6 lead at the TTO on Puerto Rico’s hitting error and went on to lead 16-10 at the second TTO. With Bulgaria leading 20-15, Puerto Rico scored twice on a block and attack from Ribas. Bulgaria called timeout and scored from the middle by Trifonov. Puerto Rico could not hold off a Bulgarian victory.