Cuba thumps Puerto Rico to win bronze at NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship
The bronze-medal match of the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship took place on the September 17 in Caguas, Puerto Rico, where the championship was being hosted. The two teams in the running for the third position were Cuba and the home team of Puerto
Rico. What followed was a one sided affair after which the Cubans were celebrating their clean sweep over a much disappointed Puerto Rican side.
Not only did the Cubans win the match in three back to back sets, they did so in a dominating fashion. The Cubans managed to keep the Puerto Ricans at a safe distance all through the match at the following final set scores: 25-20, 25-15 and 25-21.
Yusdeiy Silie, a Cuban player, made the following comments after the match had reached its close: “Our objective was the qualification to the World Cup, so we are not happy. But considering the circumstances, a third place is better than nothing.”
On the other hand, the Cuban coach, Juan Carlos Gala, shared his views in this manner: “The players followed our tactical plan and it paid dividends. In general, the team didn’t attain the goal of reaching the World Cup.”
From the Puerto Rican side, the coach, David Aleman, made these comments: “Cuba is a powerful team and taller than us. I think we can improve and prepare for the Pan American Games and the Olympic Qualification Tournament.”
The first set of the match started off with Cuba emerging with the lead. The Puerto Ricans were able to get the advantage but Cuba did not let it stay with them for long and bagged the opening set at 25-20.
The second set was completely dominated by the Cubans and Puerto Rico could not do much to avoid a 15-25 loss. The Puerto Ricans stepped up their game in the third set of the match but the effort came in too late and Cuba sealed the deal at 25-21.
The Cubans were able to outperform the Puerto Ricans in almost all aspects of the match. They were most active in the blocking department, having made 11 blocks in comparison with three of the Puerto Ricans. Not only that, the Cubans scored six aces in comparison
with five of the Puerto Ricans.
Both the Cuban as well as the Puerto Ricans players were able to score the highest number of points in the entire match. From the Cuban side, Kenia Carcaces topped the scorers with 16 points while the Puerto Rican player that posted the same number of points
was Aury Cruz. Carcaces was helped by her team-mate Yoana Palacios who made her presence felt by adding 12 points of her own.
Tags: