Cuba Beats Czech Rep. in VB, Stay Alive

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 9 — It wasn’t easy but the Morenas del Caribe, Cuba’s popular women’s volleyball team, defeated the Czech Republic three sets to one Tuesday in the World Championships taking place in Japan.

The match took a minute shy of two hours and the scores tell the story (25-22, 28-30, 25-22 25-23).

With the win Cuba is in a tie for fifth place in Pool F where six of eight teams will go on to the semifinals.

Once again Kenia Carcaces led Cuba with 22 points and Yoana Palacios added 14.  Helena Havelkova and Aneta Havlickova both had 20 points for the Czech Rep.

Both teams were error plagued with the Cubans committing 30 and the Czech Rep. 31.

Cuba now plays Italy in its last second round match on Wednesday. The Czech Rep. faces Thailand.

The standings in Pool F after Tuesday’s play are as follows:  Brazil 6-0; USA 5-1; Italy 4-2; Germany 3-3, Cuba & The Netherlands 2-4, and the Czech Rep. and Thailand 1-5.

In the other group, Pool E, Russia leads with a 6-0 record; Japan is 5-1; Turkey, South Korea and Serbia 3-3; Poland & China 2-4 and Peru 0-6.