Cuba men beat Canada to claim spot in U21 World Championship

 Fort McMurray, Canada, May 21, 2017 – Cuba captured the NORCECA spot to the U21 FIVB Men’s World Championship after defeating hosts Canada to reach the gold-medal match of the U21 Pan American Cup at the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre at Keyano College on Saturday.

Cuba overcame Canada 3-1 (19-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-19) in their semi-final behind the offence of Osniel Melgarejo and Miguel Lopez, who each scored 18 points. Miguel Gutierrez contributed five aces among his 14 points in the win while Javier Concepcion added 12 tallies.  Sharone Vernon-Evans had 18 points for Canada, while Eric Loeppky had 17, with three aces. 

In the other semifinal, the powerful Brazilians won over the smaller but scrappy Guatemalans 3-0 (25-10, 25-16, 25-20).

Cuba now plays for gold against Brazil, while Canada and Guatemala will compete for the bronze medal on Sunday.  

Canada looked strong and organised in the first set against Cuba as they prevailed by six points. However, Cuba wouldn’t allow the host country to run away with the World Championship berth. Although Canada led by four late into the second set, Cuba recovered to take the set by three points and really didn’t look back from that point.

“We are very happy because we qualified for the World Championship,” Cuban captain Adrian Goide said. “We expected to win.”

“I think we played well, but at the end we missed some passes and made other mistakes, and against a team like Cuba, there is no mercy,” said Canada’s head coach Gino Brousseau. “I saw my players getting tired toward the end. It’s been a long tournament, but I’m proud of them because they fought really hard.”

In the other semifinal, Brazilian middle blocker Gabriel Bertolini contributed 13 points, and teammate Henrique Honorato had 12 points. Erik Flores scored 10 for the losing side. 

“We always try to bring our good game, no matter who the opponent is,” Brazil coach Nery Pereira said. “We had a day off yesterday, so our players kind of lost their focus a little bit, but for tomorrow’s finals we will have to regain that focus.”

In the match for fifth place, Puerto Rio swept Chile 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-18).

Puerto Rico’s Sebastian Negron was the top scorer with 17 points – 11 attacks, two blocks and four aces – while Vicente Mardones scored 11 for Chile.