Cuba off on good start at U18 Pan Am Cup

DURANGO, Mexico, May 21, 2019. - Cuba began with strong pace the U18 Girls’ Pan American Cup, the event that grants two spots for the FIVB World Championship, prevailing to Peru 3-0 (25-23, 25-12, 25-23) in pool B at Auditorio del Pueblo of Durango, Mexico.

Peru was able to detain Cuba’s charging force over the net with fast moves and a balanced defense during sets one and three. It was in the second set that Cuba had little resistance from Peru with their unstoppable serves reaching a huge 13-2 lead.

Remaining in command did not come easy for Cuba while Peru grabbed actions in their own hands with a three point up to the second technical time-out in set three.

Cuba earned their first victory in Pool B with a huge 33-19 advantage in kills, 9-3 in blocks and serves 8-2 in serves. Cuba allowed 34 points on errors while scoring on 25 opponent errors.

Cuban opposite player Dezirett Madan led all scorers with 14 points including 12 kills, followed by wing spikers Claudia Tarin and Thainalien Castillo with 11 points apiece. Spiker Carolina Milla tallied 7 points for Peru.

Cuba’s (1-0) next opponent is Guatemala (0-1) and Peru (0-1) is set to play against Puerto Rico (1-0).

Cuban Dezirett Madan said they attacked strong “our most outstanding feature is spiking, we performed it well, added to our team effort. For a first match it went pretty well, but we were too confident in the third set because we thought we had already won. Number 16 (Thainalien Castillo) did an excellent job serving”.

Coach Jaime Echeverría of Cuba indicated they tryied a new formation “today we didn’t use our traditional formation because our setter is sick; I’m satisfied because it worked out well. Each player has an individual goal for our team’s benefit and today they all did a good job. Peru grew stronger because of our errors”.

Natalia Málaga, Head Coach of Peru said her team lacks confidence “we lost by only two points the first set and my team felt defeated, they could have reacted. We don’t have a leader that can put up the challenge. The defense has many flaws. The team knows how to play, they just don’t execute”.