Puerto Rican libero players compete in Saturday volleyball match

January 31, 2011

University Park, PA

One will graduate this spring and become a professional volleyball player soon; the other is just starting his college career.

The legendary Rec Hall arena at Penn State was the scenario for a volleyball match between two young Puerto Rican libero players.

In the end, the more experimented Dennis Del Valle (Toa Alta, PR) obtained the victory over Roberto Torres, a young volleyball promise from Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

This Boricua libero clash was part of a Saturday night match in which the no. 9 Penn State Nittany Lions hosted the Flyers from Lewis University.

A kill from Joe Sunder (Redshirt Junior OH) assisted by Senior libero Del Valle brought the important point 25 at the end of the match and secured a three set victory (26-24, 25-19, 24-19) for the Nittany Lions.

Del Valle had a match-high 10 digs and his performance earned him the “Mike Anderson Player of the Game” award.

Edgardo Goas (San Juan, PR), who was chosen as the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) “Player of the Week” after the first two conference games, contributed to the victory with a total of 35 assists.

For Penn State (6-1), this was their second win of the weekend and sixth victory of the season. On Friday night, they beat no. 14 Loyola University in four sets (21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 29-27).

Lewis (6-1) suffered their first defeat of the year.

Dan Friend, coach of Lewis, praised the effort made by his young players, including Freshman libero, Roberto Torres.

“He got better as the match progressed. For him, it’s a learning process. Roberto is going to be a great player”, expressed Friend about the Puerto Rican player and alumnus from San Benito Catholic School in Mayagüez.

Torres finished the match with a team-high 9 digs.

Both Lewis and Penn State will continue their respective seasons on Friday, February 4th. The Flyers will play at home against Stanford and the Nittany Lions will host the team from UC Irvine.

(The photo was provided by Roberto I. Albandoz Carrasquillo.)