Cuba grabs gold in U-19 Continental Championship – Volleyball news
The title match of the NORCECA Boy’s U-19 Continental Championship took place on Saturday, July 7, 2012 between Cuba and Mexico. The tournament was being staged in Tijuana, Mexico while the venue of the final match was the Centro de Alto Rendimiento sports
hall where an audience of 1000 had come to watch the show. Unfortunately for the majority of the crowd, the home team was not able to win a single set as Cuba made a clean sweep to grab gold in the tournament.
Cuba was able to dominate their rivals and grab a win within one hour and 16 minutes at the following final set scores: 25-14, 25-21 and 25-14.
The coach of the Cuban side, Rodolfo Sánchez, shared his views at the win by giving the following statements, “I want to congratulate both teams and we made a super natural effort with only three weeks of preparation and only seven players. They did a great
job.”
On the other hand, the captain of the home team, Mauricio Lopez, expressed his disappointment by making the following comments, “We feel a little bit sad, but we are optimistic because we still have one year of preparation ahead of the world championship.”
The title of the best scorer of the match went to two Cuban players as both Osmany Santiago Uriarte and Abraham Alfonso Gavilan were able to tally a total of 16 points for their side. On the other hand, the player that was able to lead the home team was
Alexis Garay with a score of 11 points. Garay was helped by his captain Lopez who made his presence felt by adding 10 points of his own.
The opening set of the match started off with the lead going towards the guest team but the home side kept chasing behind till they had made the score level. However, the Cubans were able to pull up ahead with the advantage while the Mexicans started trailing
behind. Once Cuba increased the gap, Mexico could not over take their opponents as a result of which the first set of the game went to the Cubans at 25-14.
The Mexicans were able to come out stronger in the second set of the match as they took the lead early on and managed to stretch the advantage. The Cubans kept on trailing behind and eventually tied the frame. After that point, it was the Cuban squad that
went ahead with the lead and did not let go of the advantage till they had secured the second set at 25-21.
Cubans started the third set by taking a quick advantage and sticking with it while the Mexicans trailed behind all the way and could get the lead at no point in the frame. As a result, Cuba bagged an easy win at 25-14.
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