Cuba is the new U21 Men’s Pan American Cup Champion
HAVANA, Cuba, June 10, 2023.- Cuba is the new U21 Men’s Norceca Pan
American champion after beating defending champion United States in a
sensational gold medal match 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 30-28, 25-15, 15-11) in
heated two hours and 16 minutes in front of hundreds of fans at the
city’s coliseum.
It seemed that the visitors would return home again with the title, the
hosts reacted, they moved ahead winning the second and third sets to
seal in the fifth, not before a great battle from both teams, in which
the home team held advantage in kills (52-47), but in blocks (17-16)
and serves (9-8) it was by a slight margin.
Opposite hitter Alejandro Miguel González once again showed his
leadership as the leading scorer with 26 points and was joined in the
offense by outside hitters Bryan Camino (22) and José Ramón Gómez (10),
and middle Jakdiel Contreras (10), while other middle, Alexis Wilson,
added 8.
In the previous edition the United States defeated Mexico in the title
match, who wasn’t in the event, while Canada took the bronze medal over
Cuba. On this occasion, Canada finished in the same position, but
beating Puerto Rico.
Jesús Cruz, host head coach said “first we achieved our goal of
improving last year’s fourth place. We had a meeting to study that we
weren’t going to lose today, we came to win, there was no need to
reserve anything, nothing to take care of, it was only one match to give
our best and if the opponent was successful, it was with the best
version of Cuba. Things didn’t work in the first two sets, but we were
able to recover, the best thing this group had in the tournament was the
possibility for change. If the opponent changed its tactics we would as
well and that’s how we kept the entire match. In the end it turned out
better for everyone”.
The team leader, Alejandro Miguel González, expressed “we had the
opportunity, and we took advantage of winning games in tie-break, we
grew facing difficulties and that’s why we’re celebrating the gold medal
match. From 2022 to now all the players have grown, before we were more
dependent on each other, this time around we all pushed the same and
deserved the awards. We played as a team”.
Veteran coach of the United States, Andy Read, said “we wanted to finish
the match in the third set, which we almost did because we were up 2-0,
but we didn’t. The crowd supported their team in their win. A close game
was expected and the way it went it could have gone either way. I am
glad to see how my players performed and how they faced the tournament”.
Nyerovwome Omene, U.S. captain expressed “facing Cuba and in Cuba is
always good and fun. We also had the opportunity to meet in pool-play
and we enjoyed both matches. We are happy about that, despite the loss.
Now we must continue to the U21 World Championship”. |