Cuba Upends Italy 3-2 in Women’s VB

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Nov. 10 — Cuba fought hard to defeat Italy in five sets (16-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23, 24-22) in its final match of the second round of the Women’s World Volleyball Championship taking place in Japan on Wednesday.

Kenia Carcaces once again led the Cubans with a phenomenal 34 points including 10 in the tie-breaker fifth set.  Rachel Sanchez added 20 for Cuba and Rosanna Giel had 16.

The Cubans will now play two more matches that will determine where they finish between 9th and 12th place in the tournament.

Italy will play for the 5th to 8th place position.  They had hoped to be among the final four but saw their hopes dashed.

See full story on the Cuba-Italy match and all results on the official tournament website.

In other action on Wednesday Brazil maintained its undefeated status by beating the USA three sets to one.  Germany defeated The Netherlands 3-1 and Thailand won over the Czech Republic by that same score.

The final four of the tournament that will battle for the medals are Brazil 7-0 and USA 5-2 from Pool F, and Russia 7-0 and host Japan 5-2 from Pool E.