U-21 volleyball
Havana, October 5 (JIT) - Cuba and Canada will face each other this Wednesday as undefeated teams and the one that maintains that condition will advance directly to the semifinals of the U21 Men's Pan American Volleyball Cup, which is taking place at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.
The hosts swept Nicaragua in straight sets (25-16, 25-20, 25-15) in a match in which their superiority was evident, especially in blocking (13-1), although they were better in attack (32-22) and in service (11-8).
Once again their main man, opposite Alejandro Miguel González, was the top scorer of his team and of the match with 15 points, followed by corner player Yusniel González (10), the other with double digits. On the other side, José Blandon was the top scorer with 7 points.
Coach Jesús Cruz commented that "the boys were a little looser, they are gaining confidence, which was to be expected as the games progress. We gave participation to everyone again because tomorrow we have to win and we want to have them ready in case of need."
He recalled that Canada always attends with good equipment, "it is a country where they play a lot of volleyball with quality and level, they have tall players that almost always dominate the technical elements well, with them it doesn't matter the group they bring, we are always going to have a close match for both sides".
Cuban libero Alvaro Luis Ricardo said after the match against Nicaragua that "we can play a little better, we know the level we have. These rivals are not so strong and sometimes we adapt to their game. But I know we can do better and against Canada we have to make our best effort, and we will look for the victory".
Jorge Mena, visiting coach, valued that "Cuba is a powerful team, strong, we congratulate them, but we didn't give up, we were always there because we came to compete, to give our best. They have a very strong serve, they gave us several points and that's when we lost the second set".
On the other hand, Canada achieved its second success by beating Haiti 3-0 (25-17, 25-19, 25-14) and once again showed an orderly game. Along with Cuba, Canada is the favorite to win one of the two tickets to the 2023 World Championship.
In Group A, the United States and Chile made their debut with respective victories over Mexico and the Dominican Republic, respectively. Both had problems with their air transportation, and the game between them on Monday was rescheduled for Thursday.
The northerners won 3-2 (25-13, 24-26, 25-21, 22-25 and 15-12) in the only match that has been extended to five sets, while the South Americans swept with scores of 25-17, 25-21 and 40-38.
