Cuba outduel Dominican Republic for the bronze

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, July 20, 2012 – Cuba outdueled Dominican Republic in five thrilling sets (25-21, 28-26, 23-25, 18-25, 15-12) to claim the bronze medal of the XI Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup on Friday.

It is the second bronze for Cuba and sixth overall (four gold medals) in the history of the competition while Dominican Republic was left out of the podium for the first time.

Wilma Salas topped Cuba with 23 points while Rosanna Giel and Yoana Palacios each recorded 18 points. Yanelis Santos and Ana Cleger notched 14 and 10 respectively.

Bethania De la Cruz finished with 23 points for the defeated side. Annerys Vargas had 16, Sidarka Núñez added 14 and Candida Arias contributed 12, including a match-high 8 blocks.

“Both teams played a good game and thanks to God the result went for us,” Cuba’s Yusidey Silie said. “We went out to have fun and we are happy with the bronze and the qualification to the Grand Prix.”

“We need to continue working to iron some wrinkles in our game, to work on some details like our concentration,” Dominican Prisilla Rivera said. “We are very sad for not winning a medal but I there are more events in the future.”

“You always expect matches like this when our teams face each other,” Cuba’s Juan Carlos Gala said. “We won two five-setters against them in this competition. The fifth set was very dramatic and in a tie-breaker the team who plays better win most of the time.”

“In a fifth set anything can happen,” Dominican Republic’s coach Markos Kwiek said. “It was a very intense match like always happens when these two teams play each other. We need to continue working and improving.”