Canada’s senior women’s volleyball team was golden on home hardwood last weekend during the NORCECA Continental Championship at the Langley Events Centre.
Canada won the tournament title with a 3-0 win over Cuba Saturday at the LEC.
In a hotly contested final, set scores were 25-18, 25-15, and 25-23.
The win over Cuba not only earned the Canadian women the gold medal, it also qualified them for the 2018 world championships in Japan.
Canada started off tentative very early on in the gold medal game, but then gained strength after the first technical time out of the first set, and they didn’t really look back despite a late challenge by the Cuban team.
Tournament MVP Alexa Gray led all scoring with 19 points, followed by Marie-Alex Belanger with 17 points. Sulian Matienzo reached double digits for Cuba with 12 points.
Cuba comes away with silver and also earns a berth in the 2018 worlds, while Nicaragua and St. Lucia finished third and fourth, respectively.
“We are very happy. We played very good, especially in the first two sets. We showed what progress we’ve made this summer,” Canada head coach Marcello Abbondanza said. “I’m happy for my team — they gave it 100-percent of what they had, and winning 3-0 is never easy, so bravo.”
After the game, Canadian captain Lucy Charuk noted that the last time Canada faced Cuba at the Pan Am Cup in Peru, Cuba came away with the victory, “so we’ve had our sights set on this match for the last month and a half. We knew it came down to tonight. We learned so much in the last five months, it’s awesome. We love playing at home, it’s just the best feeling.”
Canada earned a spot in the final with dominant wins over Nicaragua Friday (25-13, 25-10, 25-8) and St. Lucia Thursday (25-8, 25-8, 25-8).
troy.landreville@blackpress.ca
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