Cuba Men's Volleyball Team

Havana, July 21 (JIT) - The Cuban team finished in fourth place after losing to Puerto Rico (1-3) in the discussion for the bronze medal of the 17th Men's Pan American Volleyball Cup 2024, which took place in Santo Domingo.

The Puerto Ricans won with scores of 28-26, 25-17, 16-25 and 25-22 in one of the three final matches at the National Pavilion of that sport at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.

The hosts opened the day with a 3-0 win over Colombia (25-22, 25-19, 26-24) to secure the fifth place in the tournament, in which Chile took seventh place by dominating Mexico on Saturday in straight sets of 25-22, 25-20 and 25-18.

In the challenge for the third place, the Puerto Ricans finished with a slight advantage over the Cubans in attacks (44-42) and blocks (14-12), but in points from serves the advantage went to Cuba (8-6).

The top scorer of the match was Puerto Rico's Cuban-born Klistan Lawrence, who accumulated 22 points, followed by teammates Pedro Molina (15) and Omar Hoyos (11).

Carlos Charles, the opposite player from the Greater Antilles, was the second most productive player of the match with 16 points, followed by Victor Flores (15) and Alexis Wilson (13).

Cuba finished with four wins and two losses. The successes were against Colombia (3-0), Peru (3-1), Guatemala (3-0) and Dominican Republic (3-1). The previous setback was suffered in the semifinal against the United States in five hard-fought sets.

The title was won by Canada, the only team that went through its group and the semifinals undefeated, and just finished with a 3-1 victory over the United States (26-24, 26-24, 26-28, 25-19).