Cuba wins U20 Pan Am opener to Chile

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 8, 2017.- Cuba easily beat Chile 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-12) at the Women’s U20 Pan American Cup opener on Monday at Gimnasio Nacional of San Jose, Costa Rica.

Cuba showed their high level game dominating each skill with superiority, leading 32-13 in kills, 12-3 in blocking and 11-3 in service points. Both teams had similar amount of errors, Cuba finished with 21 and Chile with 20.

Ailma Cese topped Cuba with 13 points, 11 on kills and 2 blocks; the other double digit scorer was Diaris De La Caridad Perez with 10 points. On Chile’s side, Beatriz Novoa scored 7 points.

Pool C matches on day two of competition feature a South American battle between Chile and Peru; while Cuba has the day off.

Diaris De La Caridad Perez, Cuba’s captain: “Winning the first match is motivating, you always have more pressure at the beginning of a competition. We are prepared to battle strong and finish pool-play on top, that way we’ll advance into semifinals. Our objective is to qualify to the World Championship”.

Amalia Carvajal, Chile´s captain: “We just came from playing a friendly series against Dominican Republic and we really improved, we moved a step forward and today’s result is frustrating. We had no heart on the court and we respected Cuba too much. We must improve our attitude; we did the easy things more difficult”.

Wilfredo Robinson, Cuba’s Head Coach: “Yes, we won, but the girls started too stressed. Our serves and blocking turned out well, the group is developing and as the tournament advances we’ll see improvement”.

Eduardo Guillaume, Chile’s Head Coach: “There’s a huge gab with Cuba, not only physically but technically as well. We must work a lot more in our technical skills, this is an enthusiastic group and in a short period we will have a better performance. Today we faced a solid opponent, a saw a superlative Cuban team and we must not feel bad of the outcome; tomorrow we’ll have to do our best”.