PONCE, Puerto Rico, June 9th, 2024.- Cuba defeated Costa Rica 3-1 (25-15, 25-15, 20-25, 25-19) and finished in third place of the NORCECA Women’s Final at the Salvador Dijols Coliseum in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
This is Cuba’s second medal in the history of the event since they finished second in 2022 losing to Mexico in last match.
The Cubans finished with record of 1 win and 2 losses while Costa Rica ended with an 0-3 win-loss record.
Cuba came out strong in the first two sets pushing with their serves and power attacks. In the third set, Costa Rica displayed a different strategy forcing with serves to start with a 5-0 advantage. Cuba tried to bounce back but the Costa Ricans were motivated and won the set 25-21. A balanced fourth set started for both teams, but the experience of the Cubans prevailed to take the last set 25-21.
Cuba was led by a solid performance from opposite Alejandra Gómez who finished with 26 points (19 attacks, one block and 6 aces) followed by middle blocker Lianet García with 15 points (14 attacks and one ace). For Costa Rica, Julissa Rodríguez ended with 11 points (8 attacks and 3 blocks).
Cuba led 60-29 in attack points and 8-6 in serves. Both teams scored 6 blocks each. Cuba committed a total of 32 unforced errors surpassing the 21 committed by Costa Rica.
Head Coach of Cuba – Leivis García: we achieved the goal for this event, which was to have new players playing to develop the physical and technical aspects and I think we did well in the game. The new players have been fulfilling the task little by little and that is what we wanted. Now we will concentrate on the next tournament which is the Final Six.
Top Scorer of Cuba – Alejandra Gómez: I was a little nervous at first but then managed to take the pace of the game supported by the coach. I am preparing myself and this is an experience to continue playing and advancing in my sport.
Head Coach of Costa Rica – Ronald Pérez: for us it was clearly a great challenge, but we saw a big change in pressure on our players. We decided to be organized tactically and I think we have a very good serve, and we can improve our reception as we could see in the third set. Now we have the Central American Final Four in Honduras, and we are going with the same objective of continuing accumulating points.
Top Scorer of Costa Rica – Julissa Rodríguez: I think it was a good tournament for us as we prepare for the next event. In today’s match we were able to give a better version of ourselves in the last sets. This tournament is for us to prepare for the Central American Final Four since most of us will be playing in that event and our goal is to win.
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