Cuba beats Serbia in Olympic women's volleyball quarters
19/8/2008 17:50
Cuba survived some dicey moments to edge past Olympic debutants Serbia in
straight sets in the quarterfinals of the Beijing Games women's volleyball
tournament today.
Former world champion and Athens bronze medalist Cuba met
serious challenge from the Serbian women in the beginning of the match. The
opening set was close as either of the teams could pull away until the set was
levelled at 24-all.
Cuban spiker Yumilka Ruiz hit an excellent smash and then
an error from Serbia gave Cuba the first set.
It was in the second set that
the Cuban women, who won three straight Olympic gold medals in 1992, 1996 and
2000, have started to take control over the match.
After another Ruiz smash,
the first technical timeout came with Cuba in front 8-3. Yanelis Santos, Ruiz
and Rachel Sanchez kept the points coming for the Cuban side on the resumption,
forcing their opponents off for a timeout while trailing 12-4 behind.
Cuba
brought up the second technical timeout with 16-10 while the Serbian women,
having stunned the world with their third-place run in the World Championships
2006, could hardly test Cuba, losing the set at 25-19 after a Jelena Nikolic
long serve.
Serbia mounted a strong comeback in the third set, and despite
trailing behind at both technical timeouts, the team levelled the match at 16-16
after Jovana Brakocevic and Natasa Krsmanovic hit two sizzlers.
The rivalry
became tense and Serbia was on a surge, noticeably two straight blocks from Maja
Ognjenovic to help the team overtake the lead at 22-20.
However, Serbia was
not consistent in the remaining time. Rosir Calderon and Nancy Carrillo smashed
home consecutively before Cuba edged past Serbia at 26-24 to close out the match
in one hour and 20 minutes.
Xinhua
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