Cuba moves to U19 Continental Championship final match – Volleyball news
A semi final match of the Norceca Boys’ U19 Continental Championship took place on Friday, July 6, 2012 between Cuba and the USA. The final four round of the tournament was being held in the Mexican city of Tijuana at the Centro de Alto Rendimiento sports
hall. The Cubans were able to hand out a defeat to the US squad by 3-1 in front of an audience of 600.
Cuba was able to earn a ticket into the final match of the championship in one hour and 50 minutes at the end of which the score board showed the following final set scores: 22-25, 25-16, 26-24 and 25-19. Not only has Cuba been able to reach the title match,
they have also qualified to be a part of the U19 World Championship with their recent win over US.
The coach of the Cuban squad Rodolfo Sánchez, shared his joy at the win by making the following comments, “This was a final in advance. We matched a very tall and talented team with a great technique. I am happy with the kids for this victory and also hope
USA can qualify to the World Championship.”
On the other hand, the American coach Daniel Friend expressed himself in the following manner, “Cuba is a very physical and athletic team. We did a nice job, but had a few errors close to the end. We hope to have the opportunity to rebound tomorrow get medal
and the ticket to the world championship.”
The player that was able to tally the highest number of points in the match was Osmany Santiago Uriarte of Cuba with an impressive 36 points. Uriarte was helped by his team mate Inover Romero who added 20 points of his own to keep the pressure on the US
squad. On the other hand, the lead scorer on the US side was Lee Smith with 15 points while Fey Kupono of US scored 14 points.
The opening set of the match saw both the teams play on the same level but eventually US began to creep ahead with the Cubans chasing close behind. The Americans were able to extend their advantage while the Cubans could not over take their opponents as
a result of which the first set went to the US at 25-22.
The loss of the first set triggered the Cubans into action as they got an early lead and took it further. The US could not take the advantage at any point in the set which ended in favour of the Cubans at 25-16.
The third set was very competitive and reached several ties with quite a few lead changes. However, it was the Cuban squad that prevailed in the end by bagging the set at 26-24. The fourth set was mainly dominated by the Cubans who were able to seal the
deal by a comfortable margin at 25-19.
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