Cuba finally collected a win in its third straight full sets
battle at the 2007 women's volleyball World Cup, edging Poland 3-2
in Sendai on Tuesday.
Coming off consecutive losses to the United States and Brazil on
Saturday and Sunday, Cuba struggled past the wild card holder
21-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-21 and 15-13 to improve to a 2-2 win-loss
record and keep alive the hopes of qualifying for next year's
Beijing Olympics directly.
"It's a long competition and it's still possible to make the
best three if we don't lose any more games," said Cuba head coach
Antonio Perdomo.
"Regarding today's games, as we dropped two sets, obviously we
didn't have the right rhythm," he added. "I have to say I am not
satisfied with the way we played, even though we won."
In the tie break, Cuba overcame an 8-6 deficit to overtake the
lead at 11-10, but a block by Maria Liktoras and a good spike of
Malgorzata Glinka pushed Poland up again at 13-12.
Then Nancy Carrillo and Zoila Barros stopped ice Anna Podolec
twice in row before Carrillo sealed the victory for Cuba with an
ace.
Carrillo converted on 15 of 19 spiking attempts and added five
blocks to lead Cuba with 23 points. Yumilka Ruiz and Daimi Ramirez
contributed 19 and 13 points respectively.
"I have to say that both teams played really hard and it was a
great game," said Ruiz. "In the end, our players just played really
well to win and I'm very happy with that."
Dropping to 1-3 in win-loss record, the Polish women only had a
chance in theory of making top three in the 12-team round-robin
tournament.
"I am happy with the volleyball we played today. I think we
tried very hard," said Poland coach Marco Bonitta. "Having lost
some games, what we have to do now is to believe in our strength
and win as many games as possible."
In Osaka, South Korea beat Dominican Republic 26-24, 22-25,
25-20 and 25-21 for its first win in four tries.
(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)