Cuba to face Australia in the Opening of Volleyball Grand Prix

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 26 (acn) The Cuban women's team will face Australia on Friday in the first round of group P of the third level of the Volleyball Grand Prix, with the city of Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan, as its venue.
After finishing fourth in the Pan American Cup in Lima, Peru, where they qualified to the 2016 Grand Prix, the young disciples of Roberto Garcia will play against Australia on Friday, to then face Algeria and the local squad on Saturday and Sunday, in that order.
The Zhastar Sports Palace will host the event, where Garcia will again have Melissa Vargas and Sulian Matienzo as his main figures.
In the Peruvian contest, Vargas, who is only 15 years old, was the best scorer of the tournament with 144 points, a total that ranked her second of all-time behind Puerto Rican Aurea Cruz (151).
She was also the most outstanding player in service, with a 27-point record for that event, and the second best outside hitter, after U.S. player Kriska Vansant, who was the MVP of the tourney.
According to the contest's Web site, the second week of the preliminary stage has beeb programmed for Peru, where Cuba will face Kazakhstan, the local squad and Colombia next week's Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in that order.
After two qualifying phases for the round-robin tournament, Australia will host the finals on July 10-12.
The first level is made up by Belgium, Brazil, China, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and the United States, while the second level includes Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland and Puerto Rico.