Cuba falls 3-2 to Mexico in the Norceca tournament

Havana, September7 (ACN)-- The Cuban women's team lost in five sets to Mexico on the third day of the second edition of the Final Six Tournament, held at the National Palace of this sport in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

According to the website www.norceca.net, the Cubans won the first set, 25-19, lost the second and third, 23-20 and 20-25, won the fourth, 25-17, but could not finish off in the fifth, in which the Quintana Roo sealed the victory, 15-12, after one hour and 58 minutes of play.

The disciples of Tomás Fernández were better in the attack, 61 points to 55, the blocking (9-6) and the own errors that gave so many to the rivals (24-27), but the pupils of Rafael Petry showed superiority in the service (16-7).

The top scorer of the match was Cuba's Dezirett Madan, with 25 points, 23 in attack, one in blocking and another in service, followed by Mexico's Aime Margarita Topete (22/15-0-7).

Ailama Cesé (19/16-2-1) and Jessica Aguilera (12/8-3-1) also had double digits for Cuba, while María Fernanda Rodríguez (20/14-2-4) and Karina Angélica Gámez (18/15-2-1) did the same for the winners.

With this result, Cuba accumulates one win and two setbacks, since in the two previous matches they lost 0-3 (19-25, 17-25 and 18-25) against the defending champions Dominicans and won 3-0 (25-15, 25-18 and 25-21) against the Canadians, in that order.

Now the Mexicans have the same negative balance (1-2) as the Cubans, while without taking into account the pending matches of this date, the Quintana Roo and the Puerto Ricans (2-0) were undefeated.

Further behind the leaders were the Americans (1-1) and the Canadians (0-2).

According to the announcement, the preliminary phase will close on Thursday with a round-robin system and the fifth place in the tournament will be discussed a day later.

On Friday, the semifinals will take place, with the second vs. third and first vs. fourth matches, which will define the teams that will compete for the medals on Saturday.