Cuba for third consecutive success at VNL

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 27 (ACN) Cuban men's team will seek its third victory in a row today in the continuation of bracket six of the second week of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL), held in Belgrade, where they arrived with one win and three losses from the first week.

Jesus Cruz's team will try to secure victory against the Netherlands, after defeating the host nation of Serbia on Wednesday, and on Tuesday against Germany, with scores of 3-1, with partial scores of 19-25, 25-18, 25-22, and 25-21, and 22-25, 25-22, 25-16, and 25-16, respectively.

Against the home team, Cubans were better on attacks, 45 points to 43, blocking (18-4), and serving (10-3), while their victims were better on their own errors (24-29).

The official individual statistics for the match show that the top scorer was Cuban Jose Masso, who achieved 19 points: 14 on attacks, three on blocks, and two on serves, supported by Marlon Yant (18/14-1-3) and captain Miguel Angel Lopez (13/10-2-1).

For Serbia, the best performers were Dralen Luberic (14/12-0-2) and Vejko Masurovic (11/10-1-0), who completed the quintet of players with double-digit points in the match.

With this victory, Cubans temporarily are in the eighth place in the overall standings, with three wins, three losses, and nine points, based on the results of the first week.

This Sunday, the Caribbean team will close out the second week against Argentina, as they will rest on Saturday as scheduled.

Although Cuban team is aiming to surpass its performance from the previous edition, where it finished in ninth place, its main objective for the year is the World Championships in the Philippines, scheduled for next September.