FUKUOKA, Japan, November 21, 2006.- Cuba endured a torrid time from Greece to emerge 3-2 winners and collect their second Pool B triumph of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Championship on Tuesday.

 

After a tough match that saw the Greeks produce some of their best volleyball today, Cuba finally snatched a 25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-12 victory that gave them a 2-2 win-loss record and may be enough to propel them to the second round in Hiroshima.

 

Raydel Corrales and Yasser Portuondo led the Cuban charge with 28 and 20 points respectively and Oveldys Dominico added 15.

 

"I'd like to say how much I respect the Greek team, who made this match worthwhile. Our pool is the toughest group and today is a good example of that,” said Roberto Garcia, the Cuban coach. "We were lucky and either side could have won. We have lost twice and tomorrow we'd like to win against France and proceed to second round with a winning record.”

 

In Sendai, Canada triumphed in a rollercoaster five-set match over Tunisia to advance to the second round with a  25-15, 27-29, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13  victory in Pool D.

 

Fred Winters led five Canadians in double figures with 23 points. Paul Duerden had 20, Pascal Cardinal added 18 and Murray Grapentine and Steve Brinkman each had 14 points.

 

“Before the game, I told my players that the Tunisian team has a lot of experience so we had to be careful,” said Glenn Hoag, the Canadian coach. “The first set was easy for us but they didn’t give up and that gave us a lot of problems.”

In Saitama, Poland improved their win-loss record to a perfect 4-0 in Pool A by holding off Puerto Rico 25-22, 25-22, 25-23 with another impressive all-round performance. 

Puerto Rico won their opening match here, 3-2 against Argentina, but has now lost three in a row and must win their last match against China to stand a chance of finishing in the top four and staying in the tournament. Hector Soto and Enrique Escalante had 18 and 10 points respectively for Puerto Rico. 

In Nagano, Italy survived an early barrage from the United States to book their place in the second round. The Americans came out all guns blazing to overwhelm the Italians in the first set, but the Azzurri gradually took control to claim a 22-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-18 victory.

Italy's third win out of four assures them a ticket to Hiroshima, but the USA must beat Iran in their final first round match to even stand a chance of joining them. Americans Clayton Stanley and David McKinzie had 11 and 10 points respectively.