U20 NORCECA Women's Championship: Cuba & Mexico Reach Semis

2018 NORCECA U20 WOMEN’S CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP

June 18-23, 2018
Aguascalientes, Mexico | Aguascalientes State Sport Gymnasium
NORCECA Homepage

The 2018 NORCECA U20 Women’s Continental Championship is taking place in Mexico with eight teams competing for gold and a spot in the 2019 age-relate FIVB World Championship. Team USA has won the event more than anyone else at six times, although the defending champion is actually the Dominican Republic, who won gold over the Americans 3-1. It was their second gold in their last three times in the event, which ended four consecutive titles from the red, white and blue.

The format, schedule, standings, results and more can all be seen below.

FORMAT:

What’s on the line?
- The winning team of the tournament will clinch a bid to the 2019 FIVB World Championship for the age group
The eight teams are split into two pools of four nations
- The winners of each pool advance directly to the semifinals
- Teams in second and third will meet in cross-pool matches in the quarterfinals (so Pool A #2 vs. Pool B #3 and Pool B #2 vs. Pool A #3)
- Fourth place teams will still advance, but only to the Final Classification 5-8, where they play the losers of the quarterfinal matches and can finish a max of 5th place
Medal matches take place on June 23

RESULTS:

Quarterfinals:

World Rankings: #1 Dominican Republic, #11 Cuba, #13 Puerto Rico, #15 USA, #18 Mexico, #27 Costa Rica, T-#66 Honduras, T-#66 Guatemala

Group A#2 vs. Group B#3

CUBA DEF. COSTA RICA 3-0

Cuba def. Costa Rica 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-21)
Cuba advances to the semifinals at 3-1; Costa Rica falls to the 5th-8th place bracket at 1-3

Although this match ended in straight sets, Cuba was pushed by Costa Rica with every set ending in five or less points for the deficit. What pushed the Cubans over the edge was their block (9-4) and attack (40-27) despite a strong serving effort from Costa Rica. Susan Alpizar Campos (nine points) led the losing side while a trio reached double-digit scoring for Cuba led by Yamisleydis Viltres Pacheco (12 points). Cuba now moves on to the semifinals while Costa Rica will move on to the fifth-eighth place bracket.

Cuba head coach Regla Torres: “I am not satisfied with today’s performance, I did not like it. My team and every Cuban team have better rhythm, a higher level, powerful and with better attitudes. My assistant Marta and I, as former players, can’t inject the girls the desire to execute everything we’ve prepared and practiced. We hope they will understand what’s needed. We are in semifinals but we must play differently.”

Costa Rica head coach Andrés López: “I am glad despite our loss, but as a group, going back to my Federation, I reached my objective. Today my starters in every set were the tallest players and that helped us against Cuba’s strength over the net. I think that Cuba came in tired from their previous matches that were really tough and we worked them well with our strong serves. Central America doesn’t have this level, so when the match was really close, we miss 3 points, we recover, we even the score and our competitive level is not enough, neither physically nor mentally speaking, there’s nothing left to do. We don’t know how to solve. We could compete better if we had better preparation matches.”

Group B#2 vs. Group A#3

MEXICO DEF. PUERTO RICO 3-0

Mexico def. Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-21)
Mexico advances to the semifinals at 3-1; Puerto Rico falls to the 5th-8th place bracket at 1-3

The tournaments’ host will move on in the winners bracket to the semifinals while Puerto Rico is sent to the losers bracket to compete for a maximum of fifth place. Despite the loss, Puerto Rico was the better blocking unit and held close to even in serving. However, the Mexican attack and massive amounts of team errors for Puerto Rico led to their demise. Uxue Amaya Guereca Parra (14 points) continued to be an absolute star for her unit too, leading either team in points – although her teammate Melanie Guadalupe Parra Quintero (14 points) tied her up.

Mexico head coach Luis Alberto León: “I was expecting to win, but not in three sets, I was optimistic because my team fights and has worked hard. Against United States, I believe we can perform the same way or even improve, because we do better with their high spiking and our system is defensive and we try to keep the in action. I hope there will be no delays like today and yesterday, you lose confidence and the day is too long.”

Puerto Rico head coach Rafael Olazagasti: “I am not happy, I knew it was going to be a tough game, Mexico performed well, they attacked strong and we weren’t passing during the first two sets, and if your passing is off you can’t attack in the middle, you can’t open opportunities. We need to learn how to close sets and Mexico did, we didn’t. Mexico was our direct opponent, there are three teams here, United States, Cuba and Dominican Republic are the strongest and for us it’s up hill.”

STANDINGS:

GROUP-A
Rk	Code	Country	Points	Matches			Results Details						Points			Sets
Rk	Code	Country	Points	T	Won	Lost	3-0	3-1	3-2	2-3	1-3	0-3	Won	Lost	Ratio	Won	Lost	Ratio
1	USA	UNITED STATES	13	3	3	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	257	170	1.511	9	2	4.5
2	CUB	CUBA	11	3	2	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	269	234	1.149	8	4	2
3	PUR	PUERTO RICO	5	3	1	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	221	239	0.924	4	7	0.571
4	GUA	GUATEMALA	1	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	1	2	145	249	0.582	1	9	0.111
GROUP-B
1	DOM	DOMINICAN REPUBLIC	14	3	3	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	245	181	1.353	9	1	9
2	MEX	MEXICO	11	3	2	1	2	0	0	0	1	0	241	170	1.417	7	3	2.333
3	CRC	COSTA RICA	5	3	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	2	163	210	0.776	3	6	0.5
4	HON	HONDURAS	0	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	137	225	0.608	0	9	0