Puerto Rico beat Cuba and will play for the championship at NORCECA Women’s Final Four

PONCE, Puerto Rico, June 8th, 2024.- Puerto Rico beat Cuba in straight sets and will play Mexico for the championship of NORCECA Women’s Final Four at the Salvador Dijols Coliseum in Ponce, Puerto Rico with score 25-16, 25-22, 25-19.

Cuba started leading the first set 7-4, forcing a time out from Coach Juan Carlos Núñez from Puerto Rico. The locals bounced back and took the first set 25-16. The second set was very tight, but Puerto Rico adjusted at the end of the set for a 25-22 win. Putting pressure on the serve, Puerto Rico controlled the third set and won 25-19.

Puerto Rico led in attacks 40-26, blocks 11-9 and serves 8-2, but committed more errors than Cuba, 20-16.

The top scorers of the match for Puerto Rico were middle blocker Diana Reyes with 15 pts (8 attacks, 6 blocks and an ace) and opposite Grace López with 12 points (9 attacks, 2 blocks and an ace). For Cuba the top scorer was opposite Greisy Fine with 11 points (10 attacks and 1 block).

Puerto Rico will play Mexico for the first place of NORCECA Women’s Final Four and Cuba will face Costa Rica for the third place.

Top scorer Puerto Rico – Diana Reyes: We knew that this was a team that was going to show us more presence in the game because they are tall players who attack very hard, but we studied them well to play with strategy and achieve victory. The pressure on serve worked for us, as it affected their reception, and they couldn’t use their middle blockers as much. Tomorrow ‘s match against Mexico will be more demanding but, we will have our analysis and directions from our coach. We will come focused on seeking victory.

Top scorer Cuba – Greisy Fine: we knew it was a difficult match since Puerto Rico is a very good team. We had to play hard and give our all despite having the fans against us. Things didn’t go the way we wanted, but I can say that we gave everything. We must improve some things since we did not have much time to train together prior this tournament but, for our match against Costa Rica we will come with all we got and very focused.