PONCE, Puerto Rico, June 7th, 2024.- Mexico bounced back to defeat Cuba 3-1 in the opening match of the NORCECA Women’s Final Four at the Salvador Dijols Coliseum in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Cuba started with confidence taking the lead of the entire first set thanks to their power attacks. In the second set, Mexico started pushing with a combination on serves and blocks and Cuba tried to fight by tying the set 18-18 but the Mexicans were focused and won the set 25-21. Mexico’s serve was the key skill in the remaining set to defeat Cuba 3-1.
Mexico led in attacks 52-42, blocks 12-11 and serves 6-2 and made fewer errors than Cuba (23-26).
Mexico was led by an outstanding performance of their outside hitter Uxue Amaya Guereca Parra, who was the top scorer of the match, with 23 points (18 attacks, 2 blocks and 3 aces) while Cuba’s top scorer was opposite Greisy Fine Martínez with 16 points (12 attacks, 2 blocks and 2 aces).
On the second day of the Round Robin competition, Mexico will face Costa Rica while Cuba will be playing against home team Puerto Rico.
Nicola Negro – Coach of Mexico: A very important victory since Cuba is ahead of us in the world ranking and this victory grants us important points. We started with some issues since Cuba surprised us with a different tactic than the one we had studied, and it took some time for us to adjust. When we started having better serves and worked on our blocking and defense, we found the adjustment we needed to get the victory.
Jocelyn Urias – Captain of Mexico: The truth is that we came to the match very focused, I feel that our goal was to stop them since Cuba is a team that attacks very high. We knew that if we didn’t have a good serve, they would get a good reception and attack. After we started with our strong serve, their reception got weak and that really worked for us very well.
Leivis Garcia – Coach of Cuba: A first match in which Mexico used very well the serve tactic. It damaged our reception line, and we were not able to answer those serves. Tomorrow, we have a strong match against the home team and we need to fight this match with the same goal in mind we came here for, which is gaining points for a qualification.
Laura Suarez – Captain of Cuba: I think this was a very good match. In the first set we came to give it all but then Mexico pushed us with the serve, and we were not able to improve our reception and also made many unforced errors. I think tomorrow we need to come with all the strength to reduce the mistakes and give it all.
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