Netherlands beat Cuba 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-20, 29-27) - duration 1:42
06-Jul, start time: 20:01, end time: 21:43 - Attendance: 4,100 Netherlands takes second win over Cuba
The Dutch scored third victory in the World League Intercontinental Round on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Cuba, with players of the calibre of Schuil and Nummerdor imposing their spiking and serving skills on the visitors. Nummedor applied a six in a row serving frenzy to out his team ahead 18-10 in the first set, which they then closed out 25-17.The Dutch then faltered in the middle of the second set and with some unforced errors, let the Cubans back into the match. The Cubans went up 16-13 and held onto the advantage. Then Nummerdor made a rare serving error at 23-24 and the Cubans leveled at 1-1. The two sides traded the lead back and forth during the first half of the third set before the Cubans were confronted with spectacular defending of Kooistra and a fine left-handed score by Gortzen that put the Dutch up 2-1. The pattern was mirrored in the fourth set, although Cubans Aldazabal and Bell thrilled the crowd with some last minute spectacular spiking and serving. "This was a difficult win over Cuba," Dutch captain Nummerdor said. "We had no answer to Aldazabal's spiking and we were less aggressive than yesterday." Cuban captain Pimienta said his team had played as a unit and was better than in Friday's match. " I know we can play on a higher levelt like we did today," said Dutch coach Goedkoop. Cuban coach Ramos Rivas called his lineup the "Team of the Future". "We fought," he said, "and that is what we didn't do yesterday." /mh
