Cuba advance to title contest of U19 Cup 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, April 28, 2019 – Cuba breezed past Chile in straight sets 3-0 (25-11, 25-21, 25-20) advancing to the gold medal match of the U19 Boys’ Pan American Volleyball Cup being played at Ricardo Arias Pavilion in Santo Domingo.

The competition grants two berths to the FIVB World Championship to be held in Tunis next August. Cuba is already qualified which gives Chile a second qualifying chance for the winners of the bronze medal match.

Eduardo Hernández and José Miguel Gutierrez led Cuba with 16 and 15 points, respectively, while Vicente Ibarra finished with a match-high 17 for Chile.

Cuba outplayed Chile in attacks (42-34), blocks (5-4) and aces (10-3). Gutierrez scored a tournament-high six aces.

Mario Izquierdo, coach of Cuba: “We worked the match very well applying all we had practiced in our training session. Our serves worked out perfectly.”

Ivan Villarreal, coach of Chile: The match was good for the boys for the experience they got. From now on with our mind focused in the next match trying to get the spot in Tunis.”