Cuba and Mexico claim tickets for U23 WCH

HAVANA, Cuba, October 8, 2014 – Cuba beat Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-23) and jointly with Mexico, both unbeaten with four victories at the II U-23 Pan American Men’s Volleyball Cup, qualified for the FIVB World Championship, 2015 of this age group category.

The host team showed their best game level at this tournament by leading in spikes (36-27), blocks (15-2) and services (4-3) led by Osmani Uriarte (15), Livan Osoria and Lazaro Fundora, both tallying 10 points.

On the Caribbean neighbors, who made fewer errors than Cubans (20-22), the top-scorers were Luis Adames (11) and Henry Lopez (10) in a clash where the effective and powerful service by the local team made a lot of damage to their rivals’ reception. Thus, it highlighted much more the Cubans’ block.    

Rodolfo Sanchez, local coach, congratulated his boys for having played with the necessary concentration and better than in previous matches. “We are very happy for having attained another WCH qualification. We already did it at Men’s both U-19 and U-21 which is unquestionably another achievement of this volleyball.”

Their captain, Fundora, praised the Dominicans’ effort: “as they demanded us too much, but today our team came out much more battle-hardened and eager to play. Now it only remains to fight for the victory against Mexico tomorrow and in the final on Friday.”

The Cuban, Jose Alvarez Cutiño, coach of Dominican Republic, expressed: “my boys came out desperate, as afterwards they started to play their game. However, we could not get it and this match as well as yesterday was a vital clash for the available WCH spots.”

Mario Frias, Dominican captain, regretted: “It is not a secret that Cuba has more game level than us, but in the third set we let it go. Nevertheless we will fight tomorrow against Guatemala at least for the third place.”