Cuba used powerful services to dominate Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, April 25, 2019 - Cuba improved to 2-0 its record of wins and losses in Pool A of the U-19 Boys's Volleyball Pan American Cup after beating the host Dominican Republic in consecutive frames on Thursday at the Ricardo Pavilion Georiber Arias of Santo Domingo.

Cuba, already qualified to the FIVB Boys’ World Championship to be played in Tunis next August, claimed a 3-0 (25-16, 25-17, 25-16) triumph. The Dominicans evened their mark at 1-1.

Cuba dominated in all the scoring categories with advantages of 8-2 in blocks, 11-5 in aces and 38-22 in attacks. The winners made 19 unforced errors and the losers finished with 17.

Jose Miguel Gutierrez topped Cuba with 14 points, including four aces, and received support from Luis Allen with 13 and Victor Andreu with 10. The setter Christian Thondike finished with 8, including five aces.

Fuhit Edouard had 14 points as the only Dominican player who reached double digits in scoring.

Mario Izquierdo, coach of Cuba: The Dominican team with a little bit higher level than Nicaragua. Always respecting the opponent we were able to bring the work we had done during the training in the morning. Of course we continue with the goal for this competition which is winning it.”

Loren Rodriguez, coach of Dominican Republic: Cuba is an opponent which is in the world ranking of this class. Our young players came out to play hearts out but there were some tactical aspects that we were not able to reach because of the level of Cuba. I am confident that the boys will play more relaxed in the next matches.”