Taldykorgan, Kazakhstan, June 26, 2015 - Cuba swept aside Australia 3-0 (25-22, 25-12, 25-16) in their Pool N match, claiming the opening win of the 2015 FIVB World Grand Prix with ease. Melissa Teresa Vargas Abreu was impressive with 18 points for Cuba, while no player from Australia managed to score more than six points.
Cuba coach Roberto Garcia: “The experience here in the Grand Prix competition is very important. Our team’s win is very important today. For the team, we had good service for today.”
Cuba captain Sulian Caridad Matienzo Linare: “We tried to start with a strong match today, but in some plays, we lost our coordination. We know we could have done more and win better in the next match. We can improve.”
Australia coach Mark Barnard: “I’d like to congratulate Cuba. They played very well. For us, we were competitive while we could pass the ball. They have a very strong block and they have very strong service. This team, while younger, is a better serving team and we found out it was hard to deal with their serves.”
Australia captain Shae Sloane: “We really struggled towards the second and third set with the serving and it was very strong serving for Cuba. In the first set we were really competitive, we could pass and we could run the play that we want to but unfortunately, in the next sets, we couldn’t keep it up.”