Cuba Sweeps Dominican Republic at NORCECA Men's Continental Championship

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Cuba's Men's National Volleyball Team continued its reign over Pool A on Monday with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-17) defeat of the Dominican Republic on the second day of the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship at the Anaheim Convention Center Arena.

Cuba improves to 2-0 and is tied with Canada atop the pool. The two teams will square off on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. PDT. The Dominican Republic falls to 0-2 and will play Trinidad & Tobago at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Cuba’s height had its advantages as it dominated the blocking battle 16-3. Cuba’s Raydel Hierrezuelo Aguirre had five scoring blocks on six attempts. Rolando Jurquin Despaigne had four out of six and Oreol Camejo Durruthy converted three of four.

Cuba’s players average 6-foot-6. The Dominicans average 6-2.

Cuba had only one more kill than the high-flying Dominicans, 26-25, but their kill percentage was 53 percent as opposed to 41 percent for the Dominican Republic. Cuba had eight aces while the Dominicans had none.

Robertlandy Simon Aties and Camejo Durruthy each scored 10 points for Cuba. Simon Aties finished with four aces, three kills and three blocks. Camejo Durruthy scored on five kills, three blocks and two aces.

Elvis Daverson Contreras led the Dominican Republic with eight points on eight kills. Jose Miguel Caceres and Juan Eury Almonte each added six points.

The first set started out close as the Cuban lead was 8-6 at the first technical timeout. However, with the Cubans leading 13-10, the Dominican offense started having problems with keeping its serves and hits inbounds and the Cubans went on a 7-0 run. They went on to win the set 25-13.

In the second set, Cuba led 8-4 at the first technical timeout and the Dominicans never closed the gap, falling 17-25.

Cuba held an 8-5 lead at the first technical timeout of the third match and then went on a 4-1 run from with the DR never recovered.

The top two finishers at the NORCECA Continental Championship will qualify for the 2007 FIVB World Cup (Nov. 18-Dec. 2) in Japan. The top three finishers at the World Cup qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.