HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 3 (acn) Cuban men’s volleyball team travels to Mexico today to participate this Friday in the World League Group F first preliminary round, which belongs to the third level of the contest.
The young team is led by Rolando Cepeda, who will play as outside hitter, with Daniel Albo as his replacement; Javier Jimenez, Osmany Uriarte, Abraham Alfonso and Denny Jesus Hernandez will be the opposite hitters, while the central blockers are Isbel Mesa, David Fiel and Livan Osoria, Rodolfo Sánchez, Cuban head coach, also announced the setters Leandro Macias and Nicolas Gonzalez, and the libero Yonder Garcia, the digital sports publication Jit told.
The only change regarding the recently concluded NORCECA tournament, which Cuba won undefeated, held in Havana, and qualifying for the World Championships in September in Poland was the inclusion of Albo substituting Luis Guillermo Jimeno.
In this group Cuba will face Turkey, Tunisia and the hosts, in that order.
The second stage will be hosted by Turks, from June 13 to 15, with the presence of the same squads, which shall fight for the first place who will access to the third level, contest to be held in Bursa, Turkey, from June 27 to 29.
Italy with 12 points, four wins and no losses, leads group A followed by Poland (3-1-1), Brazil (3-1-3), Iran (0-0-2); while Serbia (5-2-0) appears on top of poole B ahead of the United States (5-2-0), Bulgaria (1-0-2) and Russia (1-0-2), the website of the contest said.
Belgium (6-2-0) commands group C escorted by Canada (5-2-0), Finland (1-0-2) and Australia (0-0-2); while poole D is topped by France (11-4 -0), accompanied by Germany (7-3-1), Argentina (5-1-3) and Japan (1-0-4).
The other leader so far is Czech Republic (3-1-1), followed by the Netherlands (3-1-1), South Korea (3-1-1) and Portugal (3-1-1).
