Cuba goes up against the Dominican and wins the bronze in the Sub 18

Tegucigalpa, Honduras. September 1, 2018. Cuba got up by losing the first set against the Dominican Republic to win 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-16) and take third place in the NORCECA U18 Women's Continental Championship .

Thainalien Castillo guided the Cuban team to the comeback with 21 points, of them 16 on attack and three on serve, and Dezirett Madan joined with 12 and 11 of the captain Thalia Moreno. For the Dominicans, Flormarie Heredia scored 17 points and 10 from Esthefany Rabit.

It was a very equal match, with Cuba dominating the attack 44-38 and the service 9-7, while the Dominican took advantage in block 12-10, however committed 34 unforced errors, by 30 of the Cubans who achieved their first medal in this category.

Thalia Moreno, captain of Cuba: "We were very affected after losing the first set, because we thought we had lost everything, but we knew how to react. In the second set, when we started from the bottom to get up, we realized we could win it. "

"We took a lot of experience from this tournament, especially not understate ours opponents. We beat Canada in the group stage in three sets and we thought it would be the same team and it was not like that, we trusted each other. We had the public supporting us and that motivated us a lot, despite not playing in Cuba we felt at home ".

Jaime Echevarri, coach of Cuba: "We worked on the situations of yesterday's game, the mistakes that were made, we analyzed well on the contrary, since it was a different rival to the one we faced in the first phase and the girls fulfilled the confidence that they We always maintained".

"Some players yesterday felt that we no longer trusted them, but we talked to them and we told them that we fully trust them and that today we went with everything to win."

Alexandre Ceccato, coach of Dominican: "Cuba failed too much in the first set, it was not that we played well. After the serve made it difficult for us, we had some chances in the third set, but this game is killing and dying and we did not know how to finish there. "

“Our team is very young and after losing those two sets it was no longer possible. Now we have to train for the Pan American Cup, hopefully this experience will help them ".