Cuba started with a victory over Canada

 

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 17, 2007.- Cuba defeated Canada 25-20, 25-23, 25-23 in the first match of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

 

Rachel Sanchez led Cuba with 13 points, Yumilka Ruiz and Nancy Carrillo each added 12 and Rosir Calderon contributed 11 tallies. Tammy Mahon with 10 points led Canada while Tasha Holness and Shelley Chalmers had 6 apiece.

 

“We need to play better than today to qualify to Beijing, but I am confident we will,” said Cuban coach Antonio Perdomo, during the press conference. “Canada battled hard but at the end our experience and strength made the difference.”

 

“We had some problems at the beginning with a slippery floor,” said Naoki Miyashita, the coach of Canada. “But then we recovered and player better. I hope we can come back more focused tomorrow against Puerto Rico.”

 

The powerful spikes of Rosir Calderon and Yumilka Ruiz sent Cuba to a comfortable victory in the first set.

 

In the second set, when Canada fought hard, it was the combination of Nancy Carrillo and Rachel Sanchez who provided the final spark.

 

In the third set, Canada was ahead most of the time but the solid blocking of Sanchez and several mistakes by the North Americans gave the win to Cuba.

 

“We knew we had to play very strong at the net against a good team like Canada and since we established our blocking we took advantage of it,” said Yumilka Ruiz, the Cuban Captain.

 

“Our team started slowly, but then we played better defense and also hit hard, but Cuba has a very strong attack and we could block as we wanted,” said Melissa Raymond, the Captain of Canada.