FIVB World Grand Champions Cup: Cuba volleyball aims to regain regional dominance

FILE PHOTO: Cuban volleyball players in action

Havana - Cuba’s national volleyball team is looking to regain its dominance in an upcoming regional tournament, and advance to the world championships later this year as the regional leader.

Before taking part in November’s World Grand Champions Cup, organised by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB), the team will have to beat regional rivals in the North American, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (Norceca) Championship to be held Sep 22-28 in Langley, Canada, reports Xinhua.

That shouldn’t be difficult for Cuba, which won the last two Norceca tournaments, and a total of 15 championships in the confederation’s 22-year history.

In the Norceca tournament, Cuba will compete in Group B, along with Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Group A includes the United States, Dominican Republic and Saint Lucia, and Group C contains Mexico, Guatemala and host Canada.

The best two teams of each group will advance to the semifinal round, and the third-place teams of each group will play each other.

In the Norceca championship, held in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Cuba defeated then Olympic champion the United States by three sets to two.

The winner of Norceca heads to the FIVB World Grand Champions Cup, to be played Nov 19-24 in Japan by the five regional champions from Africa, Europe, Asia, South America and North America (Norceca).

But Cuba is heading into this year’s contest after its worst performance in the history of the World League, winning only one match out of 10, in the preliminary round.