Cuba kicks off the Under 21 Pan Am Cup with a win over Chile

FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA, CANADA: In front of a packed enthusiastic crowd of local school children, Cuba and Chile kicked off the U21 Pan American Cup at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre at Keyano College in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Cuba dominated and won 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-15).

 “This is a good win, we’re slowly getting our rhythm,” explained Nicolas Vives Coffigny, head coach of Cuba’s U21 squad. “Today was great with all these kids cheering for us. I think it helped and we’re looking forward to more games.”

Cuba’s charge started early was led by Miguel Gutierrez with a whopping 21 points, which included 11 off the serve; and Miguel Lopez with 12 points by the end of three sets.

The third set showed more promise for the Chilean side, starting off exchanging points until the first technical time out, when Cuba led by two and then went on to continue to use their size and power to win in three.  

Esteban Mülchi was Chile’s top scorer with five.

“Today, we faced a team stronger than us and we played terrible,” head coach Daniel Nejamkin of Chile said. “Tomorrow, I hope we will put ourselves together against Puerto Rico. It’s a different rival than Cuba, but Puerto Rico has a really good level as well.”

May 16 (local time)

12:00  Cuba v Chile  3-1

18:00  Brazil v Barbados

20:00  Canada v Guatemala

May 17

16:00  Chile v Puerto Rico

18:00  Guatemala v Brazil

20:00  Canada v Barbados

May 18

16:00  Puerto Rico v Cuba

18:00  Barbados v Guatemala

20:00  Canada v Brazil