Cuba for second win in NORCECA 2019 Champions Cup

HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 23 (acn) Cuba will look for its second win today in the men's competition of the NORCECA Champions Cup when facing the host team of the United States.

In their debut, Cubans got a thrilling victory of 3-2 (25-19, 19-25, 25-17, 22-25 and 15-11) over Canada, according to the official website of the contest.
Canada led Cuba in attacks (54-51) and blocks (13-7), but Cubans were overwhelming in serving (9-2) and also scored 39 points off Canada's errors while committing 28.
Cuba´s best player was wing spiker Marlon Yang, who scored 15 points, and was supported by middle blocker Roberlandy Simon (10) in his re-debut with the national squad after leaving it to play professionally, while Canadian Blake Scheerhoorn (17) was the scoring leader of the match.
In the other match of the men's tournament, US beat 3-0 Puerto Rico; the latter will face Canada today.
Cuba will close tomorrow against Puerto Ricans, in a day that will also include the game between United States and Canada.
In the women´s event, without the presence of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and USA defeated 3-2 and 3-1 Puerto Rico and Canada, in that order.
The winner qualifies for next January's NORCECA Olympic Continental qualifier, but if a local team wins the tournament, then the second-place will qualify because both the U.S. women's and men's squads have already qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.