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TEPIC, Nayarit, Mexico, July 13, 2022.- Cuba
kept their undefeated record after beating
Canada 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-21) at the Men’s
NORCECA Final Six Pan American Cup on Wednesday
at the Amado Nervo Auditorium of Tepic, Nayarit.
Cuba is the only team of the competition that
remains undefeated with a solid 3-0 record, with
two days left of the preliminary round. Canada
stands with a 2-1 win-loss record.
Cuba dominated all the categories with 34-27
margin in attacks, 4-2 in blocks and 6-2 in
aces. Cuba finished with 25 unforced errors and
Canada committed 31.
Two Cuban players were the only players that
scored double-digits; outside hitter Osniel
Mergarejo with 12 points all from kills and
outside hitter and team captain Miguel Angel
Lopez collected 10 points from 7 kills, one
block and two aces.
Middle blockers Fynnian McCarthy and Jordan
Schnitzer led Canada with 9 and 6 points
accordingly.
Cuba’s next opponent is Puerto Rico and Canadas’
is Dominican Republic.
Osniel Mergarejo, Top scorer of Cuba:
“We are getting into the rhythm of the
tournament to go on adding points and generating
more confidence for our second important
tournament of the season (FIVB Challenger Cup)
because we are a team that hasn’t performed
together for two years. Canada plays well
tactically, but we are known for our strength in
serves and attacks; we need to use our power to
prevail over Canada”.
Fynnian McCarthy, Top scorer of Canada:
“For us it’s just a mental thing, we kind of got
psyched out from the service line and didn’t
come to be aggressive, we were passive and
trying to put the ball and not score points
putting pressure, so our change of mentality
will definitely help us; we can’t expect to win
missing too many serves. In our next match we
will battle hard, be aggressive in serves”.
Nicolás Vives, Head Coach of Cuba:
“We are all happy, we’ve been getting into
rhythm slowly because we’ve been together
practicing for a short period of time. It was a
good match to reach our objectives. We still
need to serve better, block better as well, we
must work
through some difficulties; what’s
important is the victory”. |
