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Canada wins battle against Cuba and qualifies for World Champ U
18
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. August 31, 2018. Canada got one of the
two tickets to the U18 World Championship in Egypt and will play
its first NORCECA tournament final by beating in an exciting
five-set battle 3-2 (18-25, 25-19, 20- 25, 25-23, 16-14) to
Cuba, in the NORCECA U18 Women's Continental Championship.
The Canadians recovered in the fourth set of a disadvantage of 4
points to tie the game to two sets per side, and in the fifth
they also came back as they went losing 10-14, to win 16-14 and
advance to their first final in this category, securing a silver
medal, surpassing the bronze medal achieved 20 years ago.
Four players from Canada got the double digit, with Katarina
Pantovic and Anna Smrek achieving 13 and Raekelle Powell and
Emma Mckinnon, with 12, who were not starters in the first set.
Thainalien Castillo with 22 points was the best scorer of the
game, 15 per attack, while captain of Cuba Thalia Moreno
contributed 16, 14 for Dezirett Madan and 13 for Dayana
Martínez. Cuba led the attack 56-37, service 14-10, but they
were behind in blocking 8-14, in addition they awarded 43 points
for unforced errors to their opponent, who only committed 28.
Hannah Duchesneau, captain of Canada: "What happened to us
tonight was that we believed, we always believed ... Our team
trusted that we could get the win ... we believed... in the
fourth set we were down four points and we believed, we wanted
this victory".
"I was on the bench in the last set, but you also have to be
prepared to be on the bench and enter the game, you must come
with a very strong work, have concentration, but we were all
supporting, both those who were outside, and the public".
Dale Melnick, coach of Canada, with tears on her face and her
voice cut off by emotion said "I'm very proud, with only seven
weeks, this generation, these 12 players and two more that are
at home is the best, it's the elite team that we have in Canada.
I'm just very proud of these girls. "
"20 years ago we won a bronze medal, this medal is for that
generation. Canada another back to the top, "said very excited
Melnick.
Thalia Moreno, captain of Cuba: "Both Canada and we beat each
other very well, maybe in the first match (In pool phase) they
were nervous, Canada is a good team, they play together. Let's
try not to make the same mistakes we made today tomorrow for the
bronze medal”.
Jaime Echevarri, coach of Cuba: "Canada is a team that came from
less to more, it is a great team. It presented an impressive
defense, ours were a little deconcentrated, the moment the
tactical plan was not fulfilled, it was lost because the
reception did not good”.
“The serve of the first set was a bit unstable, they failed a
lot. In all respects Canada presented an admirable combativeness.
You can see that they studied us very well, in the end we had
the victory twice in the fifth set and the receipt of key
players failed us ". |