Caribbean team takes away the bronze at the XI Women’s Pan Am Cup – Volleyball News
Cuba and Dominican Republic came into a tough competition for third position of the XI Women’s Pan American Cup on Friday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Cuban ladies demonstrated a spectacular show of volleyball and managed to find a place on the podium. They sent 25-21, 28-26, 23-25, 18-25, and 15-12 on board to win the bronze medal match. More than 4,500 volleyball enthusiasts witnessed the action. The
five-set thriller came to an end in 2 hours and 18 minutes.
Cuba secured third position in the tournament and also earned the ticket to 2013 FIVB World Grand Prix. Dominican Republic did try to down the Cubans, but failed to do so. The consistency in attack and defence allowed Cuba to march away with victory.
The tussle between two teams started in the opening stanza, which featured an exchange of powerful serves. Both teams jumped on every little opportunity to score points. Cuba used strong offense, whereas Dominican Republic responded in the same tone. The
situation remained undecided until the ending moments, but Cuba managed to top Dominican Republic with four-point lead in the first set, 25-21.
Dominican Republic tried to break the rhythm of opponents and staged a great volleyball scrimmage in the second set. Nonetheless, the Cubans did not slow down and captured second set with two points, 28-26.
In the next two sets, Dominican Republic emerged successful and the score tied at 2-2. In the fifth decisive set, Cuba got better and closed the set at 15-12. Victory graced Cuba in the bronze-medal match, while Dominican Republic suffered the loss.
Caribbean hotshot Wilma Salas grabbed a whole lot of attention in the match. She played exquisitely well and registered 23 points. Bethania De la Cruz of Dominican Republic was equally active on her side. She put up a great struggle for her team and added
23 points. Therefore, Salas and Bethania shared the top-scorer’s spot.
Rosanna Giel and Yoana Palacios of Cuba clipped 18 points apiece, while Yanelis Santos and Ana Cleger followed them up with 14 and 10 respectively.
“We need to continue working to iron some wrinkles in our game, to work on some details like our concentration,” Dominican Prisilla Rivera said. “We are very sad for not winning a medal but I there are more events in the future.”
“You always expect matches like this when our teams face each other,” Cuba’s Juan Carlos Gala said. “We won two five-setters against them in this competition. The fifth set was very dramatic and in a tie-breaker the team who plays better win most of the
time.”
Dominican Republic’s coach Markos Kwiek regarded it as a very intense match. He urged his team to continue working towards betterment.
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