Cuba, the three time women’s Olympic champions, will be warming up in the Montreux Volley Masters before taking part in the Third Annual Pan American Cup in Mexicali and Tijuana, Mexico on June 18-26, a qualifier event for the 2005 World Grand Prix.

The “Brown Girls of the Caribbean” are one of the favorite squads of this tournament where ten teams from the Americas will be on hand in Baja California.

Cuba is one of the three teams from the NORCECA region already qualified for the Summer Olympic Games next August in Athens, Greece. USA and Dominican Republic are the other two.

The team coached by Luis Felipe Calderon and Eugenio George finished in third place in last year Pan American Cup while suffering an upset loss to the Dominican Republic in a five-set thriller after prevailing in the first two sets of the match.

They will fly from Montreux to Mexicali with a team filled with veteran stars and promising young players who showed their talent in the 2003 World Cup in Japan in November.

In Japan they finished in the sixth position with a 6-5 record and victories over Dominican Republic, Poland, Argentina, Egypt, Korea and Italy.

Zoila Barros was the third best scorer during the World Cup with 168 points followed by veteran teammate Yumilka Ruiz with 165. Yaima Ortiz, one emerging player in the Cuban side, was the second best spiker in Japan with a successful efficiency of 54 % followed by Barros with 52.4. Barros was the best server of the 12-nations event with 34 aces for an average of 0.81 per set.

The Olympic champions qualified for the World Cup after finishing second to USA in the Continental Championships in Santo Domingo last September, where Ruiz, the captain of the team, was elected the MVP.

The Cubans obtained their ticket to Athens while beating the Dominican Republic in straight sets in the NORCECA´S Olympic Qualifier held in Santo Domingo last December.

Recently they toured China to play friendly matches with China and Poland. It was reported a 3-2 loss to China and a 3-1 triumph over Poland.

The team of Cuba is composed by Yumilka Ruiz, Yanelis Santos, Nancy Carrillo, Yusleidys Herrera, Marbelis Martinez, Yaima Ortiz, Ana Ivis Fernandez, Liana Mesa, Rosir Calderon, Anniara Munoz, Kenia Carcaces, Dulce Tellez, Martha Zamora, Martha Sanchez and Zoila Barros.