2018 NORCECA U-18 Girls’ Championship
- August 27th-September 1st, 2018
- Tegucigalpa, Honduras
- Tournament Site
Pool play at the 2018 NORCECA Girls’ U-18 Championships has wrapped up, with teams vying for 2 spots at the 2019 FIVB U18 World Championships.
All 12 pool play matches were won by lopsided 3-0 scores, including 3 each by Cuba in Pool A and the United States in Pool B, which advanced them straight-through to Friday’s semi-finals.
Cuba has been led by a tournament-best 34 points from opposite Castillo Thainalien, on 17 kills, 2 blocks, and 15 aces in just 3 matches. Yaimaris Garcia added 11 aces, and Cuba as a team having 45 in the tournament (15 per match played). The next-best team is the US with 28. The USA, sticking true to program culture, has used a number of different lineups throughout the tournament, keeping any one player from compiling outrageous statistics, but opposite Jessica Mruzik has been a standout with 18 kills and just 3 errors on 31 swings. That gives her a tournament best hitting percentage of 58.06, which is more than 3 points better than any other player in the field. Mruzik is a Michigan commit.
As a team, the USA leads most of the other major categories, including being the only team to hit better than 50% as a group (56.22%).
On Thursday evening, the Dominican Republic plays Nicaragua and Honduras plays Canada in the quarterfinals. The winner of the first match advances to play Cuba in Friday’s first semi-final, while the winner of the second match advances to play the United States in Friday’s other semi-final.
The classification matches will then take place on Sunday, including the gold medal final at 8:00 PM Honduras time (10PM U.S. Eastern Time).
Final Pool Play Standings:
Courtesy: NORCECA
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