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DURANGO, Mexico, August 20, 2021.-Defending
champion Cuba reached the semifinals after
defeating United States 3-0 (25-23, 25-23,
25-20) at the Men’s NORCECA Continental
Championship in Durango, Mexico.
Cuba finished the preliminary round first in
pool B to move directly into semifinals and the
U.S. second will play either Canada or Puerto
Rico in quarterfinals on Saturday.
Cuba led 36-25 in attacks, 10-6 in blocks and
1-0 in service points; the U.S. committed 28
unforced errors in comparison to 35 from the
Cuban side.
Outside hitter Miguel Angel López was Cuba’s
leading scorer with 13 points, opposite Jesús
Herrera contributed with 11 points and middle
blocker José Israel Masso along with outside
hitter Julio Cesar Cardenas added 9 tallies
each. For United States, middle blocker Spencer
Olivier led with 10 points.
Miguel Angel López, Captain of Cuba: “Our
performance was at a high level in every aspect
of the game; we started to leave serves but we
stabilized slowly; adding that our strength in
attacks and blocking gave a good result. We are
in good shape and happy to reach semifinals”.
Yosvani Muñoz, Coach of Cuba: “The United States
played really well, it wasn’t easy, but our team
showed our quality, we executed every aspect of
the game well, everything went well”.
Oliver Spencer, top scorer of United States: “We
did a pretty good job just putting the ball in,
taking good swings. We need to do a better job
picking up some balls before they drop to hit
the floor, those were our effortless plays;
we’ll do well and get it next time”.
Andy Read, Coach of United States: “Cuba is a
very experienced team, with several good
players. I thought we played even better than
yesterday although the result was not as good. I
am proud of how we executed things, we were
right there (23-25 in the first two sets) we
could have won one of those two sets in one
play. We´re second in our pool, we’re qualified
for the playoffs and we’re going to play even
better tomorrow”. |
