homepage

 

 

Canada wins battle against Cuba and qualifies for World Champ U 18

 

Tegucigalpa, Honduras. August 31, 2018. Canada got one of the two tickets to the U18 World Championship in Egypt and will play its first NORCECA tournament final by beating in an exciting five-set battle 3-2 (18-25, 25-19, 20- 25, 25-23, 16-14) to Cuba, in the NORCECA U18 Women's Continental Championship.

 

The Canadians recovered in the fourth set of a disadvantage of 4 points to tie the game to two sets per side, and in the fifth they also came back as they went losing 10-14, to win 16-14 and advance to their first final in this category, securing a silver medal, surpassing the bronze medal achieved 20 years ago.

 

Four players from Canada got the double digit, with Katarina Pantovic and Anna Smrek achieving 13 and Raekelle Powell and Emma Mckinnon, with 12, who were not starters in the first set.

 

Thainalien Castillo with 22 points was the best scorer of the game, 15 per attack, while captain of Cuba Thalia Moreno contributed 16, 14 for Dezirett Madan and 13 for Dayana Martínez. Cuba led the attack 56-37, service 14-10, but they were behind in blocking 8-14, in addition they awarded 43 points for unforced errors to their opponent, who only committed 28.

 

Hannah Duchesneau, captain of Canada: "What happened to us tonight was that we believed, we always believed ... Our team trusted that we could get the win ... we believed... in the fourth set we were down four points and we believed, we wanted this victory".

 

"I was on the bench in the last set, but you also have to be prepared to be on the bench and enter the game, you must come with a very strong work, have concentration, but we were all supporting, both those who were outside, and the public".

 

Dale Melnick, coach of Canada, with tears on her face and her voice cut off by emotion said "I'm very proud, with only seven weeks, this generation, these 12 players and two more that are at home is the best, it's the elite team that we have in Canada. I'm just very proud of these girls. "

 

"20 years ago we won a bronze medal, this medal is for that generation. Canada another back to the top, "said very excited Melnick.

 

Thalia Moreno, captain of Cuba: "Both Canada and we beat each other very well, maybe in the first match (In pool phase) they were nervous, Canada is a good team, they play together. Let's try not to make the same mistakes we made today tomorrow for the bronze medal”.

 

Jaime Echevarri, coach of Cuba: "Canada is a team that came from less to more, it is a great team. It presented an impressive defense, ours were a little deconcentrated, the moment the tactical plan was not fulfilled, it was lost because the reception did not good”.

 

“The serve of the first set was a bit unstable, they failed a lot. In all respects Canada presented an admirable combativeness. You can see that they studied us very well, in the end we had the victory twice in the fifth set and the receipt of key players failed us ".