Handball

Havana, Apr 2 (JIT) - Cuban women's handball players lost a close match against the United States in their second presentation at the Norca 2025 Pan American Women's Junior Qualifying Tournament, which is being held in Mexico.

The match was attractive despite the fact that it seemed to be even after the first period, as the Americans managed to take a seven-goal lead with 18-11 on the scoreboard.

However, the Cubans came out more applied in defense in the second half and only allowed their rivals six goals in the period and they scored 11 more goals. .

But that was not enough for the comeback, but left a good feeling despite the defeat. Although they let a victory slip away and had a hard time defending in the first half, they showed good physical shape and capacity to work better with adverse scores.

They will probably have to correct defensively for the next games, as in their second outing they suffered no less than six two-minute exclusions, which means that they played 12 minutes of the 60 minutes with one player down, almost a quarter of the regulation time.

For the Cubans, Lietis Beltrán stood out with seven goals, accompanied by María Mazorra on the offensive side with six goals.

Despite the defeat, the possibility of qualifying to the Junior Pan American Games of Asuncion 2025 remained intact, in fact, they kept the second place in the table with which they started the day, as Mexico beat Canada 27-25 and placed the Cubans one victory away from securing the ticket.

The task seems to be a matter of time as Jorge Coll's students still have to face the Dominican Republic, perhaps the weakest team of the event.

That match is scheduled for the third day and on the closing day they will face Mexico, which has the advantage of playing at home.