USA edged Cuba moving into NORCECA U20 Gold medal match

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States, July 30, 2016.- United States edged Cuba 3-0 (25-13, 25-14, 25-22) to move  into the NORCECA Women’s U-2 Continental Championship gold medal match in Nova Southeastern University of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

United States will face Dominican Republic when they’ll aim to win their seventh title; this is the ninth time they’ve battled for the gold.

NORCECA U-20 current champion United States controlled every skill since the beginning of the semifinal match against Cuba. The home team managed considerable advantage in sets one and two, producing points from everywhere, on kills, blocks and serves. Cuba had their better game in set three, with more scoring opportunities and less continuous errors up to 17 all. USA won set three after losing three match points. United States’ backline defense also prevented Cuba’s strong hitters on scoring.

United States scored with advantage in kills (41-33), in blocking (9-4) and in aces (7-2). They also scored on 18 Cuban errors and committed 10 of their own.

Top scorers of United States were outside hitter Lexi Sun with 17 points on 14 kills and 3 aces, followed by middle blocker Brionne Butler with 12 points on 8 kills, 3 blocks and one ace. Cuba had in Diaris Perez its top scorer with 14 points on trailing on 13 kills and one ace.

Middle blocker Brionne Butler, who has had a great tournament, said “we needed to keep the team hype and the best way for me was blocking, I made sure to do my best. Cuba is a very aggressive team and we needed to keep them under control, blocking is always the best way. It feels good to be in the finals”.

Laurie Corbelli Head Coach of USA said “Cuba plays a lot like we do; they touch high, hit hard at the block, all this is pretty much familiar to us, so our defense has had practice with that. I’m super proud the way they followed instructions with the things we thought that would work; they stuck with it and believed in it. The rest day was phenomenal; I saw a rejuvenated team tonight”. About the difference between the first two sets and the third, she added “that’s just volleyball, when you get to break it into sets, each team has a chance to adjust and change their approach, this is what Cuba did and had more success in scoring”.

Diaris Perez captain of Cuba said “we had never faced USA, we didn’t know how to play them and as the match advanced we went on figuring things out; the bad thing is that it was too late into the match. You have to recognize that United States has a great level, we didn’t do so badly but we can improve”.

Coach Roberto Garcia of Cuba said “first I congratulate United States; the difference in the third set was that we controlled our defense and blocking much better, added to more decision in attacking. United States has very good blocking and their defense line is also pretty good, we weren’t able to beat them, they executed every element of the match well, they were really organized”.