Havana, June 17 (ACN) Cuba defeated Puerto Rico 3-1 and won a bronze medal in the Men’s Continental Championship of North, Central America and the Caribbean (Norceca) under 21 Volleyball, based in Nogales, Mexico, where the Undefeated United States won the title.
With this result, the Cubans could not retain the crown they won in the previous edition, but they achieved their eighth medal in this type of competition, since they arrived in the Mexican city with six gold and one silver, a loot with which they remains the leader of the historical medal table.
According to the site www.norceca.net, the disciples of technical director Lian Sem Estrada had a bad start, losing the first set, 13-25, but then swept, 25-20, 25-18 and 25-22, after one hour and 46 minutes of action on the field, with Daniel Guillermo Martínez standing out.
Estrada’s pupil was the top scorer of the match with 30 points, 23 on the attack, four on the block and three on the serve, supported by Kelly Bryan Oviedo (16/15-0-1), while the Puerto Ricans stood out Ramón Andrés Rosado (18/15-3-0) and Lorenzo Antonio Rivera (17/16-0-1), the only four players who accumulated double digits.
The largest of the Antilles had better results in attack (55-46) and service (6-5), but they were surpassed in blocking (9-13) and the goals given to rivals due to their own errors (18-21 ), according to the official collective statistics of the challenge.
That was Cuba’s second victory against Puerto Rico in the tournament, since in the group stage, for A, they beat them 3-0 (25-23, 25-19 and 25-23), to finish in second place in the key with two successes and one setback, behind the Canadians (3-0).
The United States defeated Canada this Sunday in the final and in an undefeated duel with a score of 3-0 (25-18, 25-21 and 27-25), teams that added their fourth gold and their fifth silver, in that order .
The fifth and seventh places went to Guatemala and Mexico, teams that beat Nicaragua 3-0 (25-22, 28-26 and 25-22), and Suriname, 3-0 (25-14, 25-20 and 25-22). 18), respectively.
Cuba (6-1-1) confirmed itself as the leader of the historical medal table ahead of the United States (4-2-5), Canada (2-5-3), Puerto Rico (0-2-2), Dominican Republic (0- 1-0) and Mexico (0-0-1), respectively.
This Norceca men’s under 21 Volleyball Continental Championship is part of the qualification system for the 2025 world championship in the category.
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