Striker Jesús Herrera scored 28 points and was the top scorer of the game. Author: FIVB

The Cuban men’s volleyball team started their participation in the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) on the wrong foot, losing in five sets to their counterpart from Canada, one of the hosts of this first week of the tournament.

In a bout held at TD Place in Ottawa, the locals opened in the first set (25-21), but ours equalized with a “stretched” victory in the second set (28-26). Then, in the third and fourth sets, the story was similar, as the North Americans (25-21) and the Antilles (25-22) again dominated, in that order, so a tie-break had to be played to determine the situation.

In the fifth period, the Canadians were more accurate in important goals and eventually won with a score of 15-13. The Islanders were better in offense (75-58), but inferior in the block section (6-17), as well as in the number of unforced errors made (36 vs. 24 for opponents), two lines of play where the opportunity to get a better result eluded them .

The best player of the evening for the Cuban team was Jesús Herrera with 28 points, including two blocks and aces. Miguel Angel Lopez and Marlon Yant also performed well, both with 15, as well as Javier Concepción (12) and Israel Masso (11). For the Nicolás Vives boys, this setback against an available opponent could end up costing them dearly in their quest to maintain their presence in the next tournament.

In other results of the first date, also in Ottawa, Argentina surprised by beating Italy (25-22-25-23 and 25-18). While in the group in Nagoya, Japan, the Japanese beat Iran 3-0 (25-16, 25-22 and 25-19) and China beat Bulgaria 3-2 (25-20, 21-25 , 25-21, 20). -25 and 15-9).

This morning at close of information in Nagoya, Slovenia and Poland came out with a successful 3-1 against Serbia (31-29, 19-25, 25-20 and 25-21) and France (25-23, 18-25). , 35-33 and 25-15) respectively.

The clashes that will end the day on this side of the world will be the United States-Netherlands and Brazil-Germany. Cuba will return to Thursday’s game against the Dutch.

Source: Juventud Rebelde