• Submitted by: lena campos
• Sports
• 06 / 26 / 2012

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Cuba and Puerto Rico found themselves competing against each other in a Pool K match of the FIVB World Grand Prix on Sunday, June 24, 2012. The match was staged in the Chinese city of Luohe. Cuba was able to make a clean sweep over its opponents and earn a place in the final round of the tournament.

The score board showed the following final set scores: 25-17, 25-17 and 25-21.

The Cubans have been able to earn 19 points by the end of the preliminary round of the tournament. These points have been secured after a total of six wins and three defeats. With China already in the finals for being the host team of the final round, Cuba is sure to end up in the fifth or sixth place by the end of the preliminary round no matter how the other teams score.

The coach of the Cuban team, Carlos Rodriguez, shared his delight at making it to the final round in the following way, “I’m glad we can enter the finals and it is a big honour for us. You know we can’t play Olympics this year so it looks more important to enter the finals. Besides, our young players improved a lot in the game and we will continue to work hard.”

On the other hand, the Puerto Rican coach David Aleman, expressed himself by giving the following statements, “Congratulations to CUBA for they enter the finals. As we know there are usually four teams attending the match, we can practice and gain a lot of experience from it. So we can improve ourselves.”

Even though her team lost the match, Puerto Rico’s Sarai Alvarez was able to earn the title of top scorer of the match by putting up a total of 15 points. On the other hand, the top Cuban scorer was Wilma Salas with 13 points.

The Puerto Ricans started off the first set of the game with an early lead which they were able to hold on to for a while but the Cubans did not lose heart and stepped up their game to close in the gap and eventually take the advantage for themselves. Once they had the lead, Cuba did not look behind and sped on to secure the opening frame of the game at 25-17.

The second set too saw the Puerto Ricans take a quick lead at 8-3 before the Cubans managed to get things under control by propelling themselves forwards on a 9-1 run and eventually bagging the second set at 25-17.

The loss of the first two sets made the Puerto Ricans come out stronger and keep the score close but the Cubans were in full form and did not allow the third set to be slipped away as they secured it at 25-21.  

Source: blogs.bettor.com