• Submitted by: admin
• Asia
• International
• Sports
• 11 / 11 / 2007

With its fifth straight win following two full sets losses to the United States and Brazil, Cuba has improved to a 6-2 record and remained hopeful for a ticket to next year's Beijing Olympics.

"Fortunately we are winning at the moment, but our aim is not to lose any more games and to secure a berth to Beijing," said Cuba coach Antonio Perdomo. "I thought Thailand were superb today and hey showed a great will to win, which they also showed against the United States."

Entering the match as one of the two winless teams in the round-robin tournament, Thailand proved they could play some excellent volleyball in the first three sets.

The Thais started well in the opener, going into the first TTO two points up and held it to 19-17. But Nancy Carrillo came up with three spikes to bring Cuba the set point before Yumilka Ruiz converted on it with a block against Hyapha Amporn.

In the second set, it was Cuba that held an narrow lead from the early stage for a three-point advantage at 20-17. However, the brave Thais were able to come back thanks to three unbelievable receiving errors from Cuba that gave them a one-point lead at 22-21.A fantastic block by Narumon Khanan on Ruiz set up a spike for Sittirak Onuma that brought set point and Rattanaporn Sanuanram had a kill to seal the set for Thailand.

The Thais continued its momentum early in the third set, jumping to an 8-2 lead. Cuba finally woke up to level it at 11-all before using a 5-1 run to go up at 19-15, a gap Thailand could never close.

In the fourth set, Cuba met no real resistance.

"It's always a new experience to fight against an Asian team and it's actually quite difficult," said Ruiz, who led Cuba with 19points. "But as we played, we improved our receiving and serving and that brought us the victory."

In Sapporo, Italy extended its winning streak at the 12-teamtournament to eight by sweeping Peru 25-13, 25-21 and 25-17.