Cuba beat another Asian Team 

NAGOYA, Japan, November 11, 2006.- World No. 5 Cuba remained on the heels of Italy and Serbia and Montenegro with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Korea on Saturday.

 The three-time world champions improved their win-loss record to 4-2 in Pool E of the 2006 FIVB Women’s World Championship by defeating the eighth-ranked Koreans 25-19, 25-14, 25-22.

Cuban Rosir Calderon once again was impressive with her blistering spikes, scoring 14 out of 17 attempts and finishing with 15 points. Nancy Carrillo and Yumilka Ruiz added 13 and 11 respectively.

“I knew of the importance of a victory today and that is why we prepared so well,” said Cuban Coach Felipe Calderon. “We have had three games in a row against Asian teams and today we were very concentrated so we could return the ball well. The Korea team has a beautiful combination of attack and defense.”

Captain Ruiz added: “It is always difficult to play Asian teams because of their good defense and reception, but our team reacted very well and we had a good victory. I thought the Koreans played very well.”

In Pool E, Italy beat Chinese Taipei 25-15, 25-13, 25-14, Turkey defeated Poland 25-18, 25-22, 25-19 and Japan erased a two-set deficit to beat Serbia & Montenegro 18-25, 22-25, 25-18, 25-21, 15-11.

In Osaka , Russia cruised past the USA 25-20, 25-21, 25-17 to stay unbeaten in Pool F. Nancy Metcalf and Tayyiba Haneef each had 12 points for the Americans who fell to 2-4 in the group standings.

“We knew Russia was very strong. They serve very well, and hit high and down over your hands and they have pretty good blocking, so they're very hard to beat,” said USA coach Lang Ping. “You have to play them very quick with lots of combinations to deal with their blocks. But I'm still happy with our team. We are just learning how to read the hitters and improve our tactics.”

Also in Osaka, China twice came from behind to beat Puerto Rico 28-26, 25-14, 25-22. The Chinese raised their record to 3-3 and the Puerto Ricans fell to 0-6 in Pool F.

Puerto Rico was ahead in both technical time-outs of the first and third sets only to see the Chinese using their experience to take both.

Tatiana Encarnacion led Puerto Rico with 10 points and Karina Ocasio and Jetzabel del Valle each had 9 points.

“This game was a good experience for us to learn many lessons. China 's power is consistently strong and that is the difference with us,” said Juan Carlos Nunez, the Puerto Rican coach.

In Pool F, Brazil remained unbeaten after defeating Germany 25-16, 25-22, 25-15 and The Netherlands edged Azerbaijan 26-24, 25-22, 26-24.