Picture: File Radio COCO

Cuba advanced directly and unbeaten to the semi-finals of the U21 Men´s Pan-American Volleyball Cup, based in the city of Fort McMurray, province of Alberta, Canada.

After previously defeating 3-0 (25-11, 25-17 and 25-15) Chile, the squad coached by Nicolas Vives beat on Thursday Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-15, 25-12 and 25-20) in an hour and 10 minutes.

The leading scorer of the match was Cuban Osniel Melgarejo with 14 points, followed by his teammates Miguel Lopez (11), Miguel Gutierrez (10) and Javier Concepcion (9), according to the website of the contest.

Puerto Rico´s best players were Pedro Molina (8), Sebastian Negron (4) and Johan Leon (4).
After this result, Cubans led undefeated group A with 10 points and two wins without losses, followed by Puerto Rico (9/1-1) and Chile (1/0-2).

Now Cubans await for the winner of today’s game between Brazil and Canada, also unbeaten in Poole B, to face it on Saturday in the semifinals, while Puerto Ricans will play tomorrow against the losing side in quarterfinals.

This tournament grants two tickets for the best team of NORCECA and South America, respectively, to the World Championship, based in the cities of Brno and Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, from June 23 to July 2.