Cuba earns first victory and stays alive at the

Men's Volleyball World Championship

September 15, 2025.- Cuba responded strongly to an unexpected first-round group stage defeat to Portugal and dominated Colombia on Monday to secure their first victory at the 2025 FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Championship and keep their hopes of advancing to the Round of 16 very much alive.

The Caribbeans opened the fourth day of matches in the Philippines with a duel against debutants Colombia and used their greater experience to handle the pressure in what was a do-or-die match for them, prevailing 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-20) at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The three points obtained with the sweep against the South Americans have placed Cuba alongside Portugal in the Pool D standings.

Inserted into Cuba’s starting lineup after the loss to Portugal, outside hitter Osniel Melgarejo led his team against the Colombians with 14 points (12 kills, one block, one ace). Opposite José Masso tallied 12 (nine kills, two blocks, one ace) and outside hitter Marlon Yant contributed 11 (ten kills, one block).

“We want to stay humble and face every opponent as if they were the best team in the world,” middle blocker Javier Concepción reflected. “We saw what happened in our first match, and we’re focused on not getting too confident and preparing well for each game because every team here is dangerous. We needed to win today, and we just pushed hard and gave our best.”

Opposite Miguel Ángel Amaranto was the only Colombian player to reach double digits, leading all scorers with 18 points (16 kills, one block, one ace).

Cuba’s recipe for defeating Colombia and securing their first World Championship victory was outscoring their opponents both in kills (43 to 31) and blocks (seven to six). Each team landed three aces, and the number of errors was similar, with the Cubans giving away 23 points and the Colombians 22.

Cuba plays against the United States on September 17th at 5:30 PM (local time).