The Cuban team achieved a sensational victory over Canada 3-2 (19-25, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23, 15-13), to add the second in the Norceca U-19 Volleyball Men’s Championship 2024, based in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
This Thursday they will face the United States to define the leader of group A, since both teams are undefeated with successes over Suriname and the Canadians.
Lian Sem Estrada’s students overcame a two-set deficit against a team that surpassed them in blocks (11-17) and in service points (5-7). However, the Island team led the attack (54-45), and although they made two more errors than their rival (39-37), they took advantage of the timely and effective changes to seal the duel.
The opposite Yosdani Medina was the top scorer of the hard-fought challenge with a large number of 28 points (27 of them from attacks), while the corner players Aessandro González and Samuel A. Rodríguez contributed nine and eight points, in that order.
For Canada, corner player Reuben Veith scored 21 points (12 attacks, six blocks, three serves) and opposite number Luke Wright 12 (8-2-2).
Lian Sem told the Norceca website that “the game was complicated at the beginning because it was the first time they faced a higher level team. The players knew how to follow the coaches’ instructions and went out to fight for the game. “What we did better than Canada was combativeness and determination.”
For his part, Dan Ota, Canada’s coach, said that “it was a much better performance than yesterday. “I am very proud of this team, which is only playing its second match together, for having put pressure on Cuba, a very strong country in volleyball and which showed its quality in the second half of the match, being difficult to stop.”
