Photo: ACN.

Havana, Sep 9 (ACN) The Cuban women's volleyball team won the gold medal and the first of two berths for the 2025 Pan American Junior Games, after defeating the Dominican Republic 3-1 on Sunday in the U23 Pan American Cup, held in Xalapa, in the Mexican city of Veracruz.

With this result, the Cubans took revenge for the setback suffered at the end of the group phase against the Dominicans, when they lost 0-3 (22-25, 22-25 and 20-25), but at the end of the tournament they overcame the undefeated Dominicans in four sets.

According to the website www.norceca.net, the Cuban team won the first set, 26-24, and were ahead in the second, 22-25; after that they reacted with scores of 25-21 and 25-20, which guaranteed the victory in an hour and 30 minutes of action on the court.

The key to Cuba's success was in their better results in attack, 55 points to 42, and service (8-4), as Dominican Republic, also qualified for the 2025 Games, was ahead in blocking (8-6) and gave up seven points less due to their own errors (29-36).

The individual standouts among the Cubans were Lisandra Crafort, with 24 points in attack and one in service, and Witney Jaime (15/14-0-1), while the Quintana Roo player Alondra Denis Tapia (25/21-4-0) was the top scorer of the match, supported by her teammate Florangel Saylin Terrero (11/11-0-0).

For the bronze medal, host Mexico defeated Chile 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 25-15 and 25-13), while Peru and Nicaragua finished in fifth and seventh place with 3-0 victories over Costa Rica (25-15, 25-21 and 25-20) and Suriname (25-12, 25-16 and 25-15), respectively.

The U23 Pan American Cup (f) distributed the two tickets for the two best teams from North, Central America and the Caribbean (Norceca).

Cuba took second place in the group phase, in Group A, with nine points, two won and one lost, behind Dominican Republic (14/3-0), and ahead of Chile (3/1-2) and Costa Rica (0/0-3), while in Group B, Mexico (15/3-0) led the standings, followed by Peru (9/2-1), Nicaragua (3/1-2) and Suriname.