Cuba's U19 women's volleyball team
Havana, July 20 (JIT) - The Cuban national team finished seventh in the Norceca U-19 Women's Volleyball Championship 2024 with a win over the local Honduran team with straight sets.
At the Jorge Galeano Gymnasium in the capital Tegucigalpa, the Antilleans won 3-0 (25-23, 29-27, 25-23) to finish with a 1-4 record and the hosts without any success in their five outings.
The Central Americans tried to press all the time, especially with the service game, where they achieved an advantage (11-8), but their rivals were superior in attack (37-34) and blocking (10-4). Both teams spiked 24 times.
Corner player Salet Castillo was the best scorer with 12 points, 11 of them from spikes and a "wall", while middle blocker Yalenis Márquez scored 11 points thanks to eight attacks and two units from direct serves, and setter Ashely Simón added nine points.
On the other hand, the most productive of the match was Cuba's auxiliary attacker, Sasha Kawas, with 17 points (15 spikes, one block and one serve).
Cuba's captain, Yesica Brito, told Norceca's website: "we closed with our heads held high, there was no other option but to come out with the win".
Honduran coach Marcos Sugiyama noted that he liked the courage shown by his athletes. "The best thing about the tournament is the learning the players had during this week and look towards the future. You can change the path, training every day with motivation, become more confident, have patience and be resilient".
The Island squad was represented by a team entirely from the U-17 age group, in which six of them participated this year in the Pan American Cup in Guatemala and in the Norceca Championship held in the Honduran nation.
Along with Salet and Simón, Yesica Brito, Lizt López, Nahomi Fernández and Dayrysenia Martínez, who, like the others, require these experiences and many hours on the court for their development.
The students of Olympic medalist Norka Latamblet took part in the A key, in which they lost 3-0 to top teams from the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, who will play for the medals this Friday along with Mexico. In the match to qualify for the fifth place against Costa Rica, they lost in four sets.
