Cuba falls to Dominican Republic and goes for bronze in San Salvador

Havana, July 8 (RHC)-- Cuba lost 0-3 to the Dominican Republic in the semifinal and will dispute today the bronze medal in the women's volleyball tournament of the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games of San Salvador 2023, at the Carlos El Famoso Sports Palace in the Salvadoran capital.

According to the website of the multisport event, the Cubans were unable to face the defending champions Dominicans, who beat them easily with a score of 25-13, 25-19 and 25-15, and dominated in three of the fundamental elements of the game, with a duration of one hour and nine minutes of action on the court.

The disciples of the Quisqueyan technical director (DT) Wagner Pacheco imposed their condition of favorites in the attack, 40 points for 24, the blocking (16-5) and the service (5-0), but gave up more points due to their own errors (18-14).

Jineidy Martinez, with 16 points, four in attack, 11 in blocking and one in service, was the top scorer of the match, followed by her teammates, Gaila Ceneida Gonzalez (15/14-0-1) and Yonkaira (14/11-1-2),

None of the pupils of Cuban DT Tomás Fernández achieved double digits, and the most outstanding was Ailama Cesé (7/7-0-0-0), according to the official statistics of the match.

With this result, Cuba suffered its second setback in the tournament, as in the group stage it was beaten 3-1 by Colombia, but then managed consecutive 3-0 victories against El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago, a performance that guaranteed it to finish second in the B bracket and advance to the semifinals.

On Friday, Mexico and Costa Rica also won, 3-0 victories over Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador, respectively, at the start of the battle for the fifth through eighth places, which will be decided this Saturday, as well as the bronze and gold medals.

The podium of the previous edition in Barranquilla 2018 was led by the Dominicans, escorted by the Colombians and Puerto Ricans, respectively, while the largest of the Antilles finished in seventh place, the worst performance in history.

The Cubans lead the historical medal tally with eight gold medals, two silver and one bronze, followed by the Dominicans (7-1-4) and the Mexicans (3-7-3).