Tampere, Finland, July 3, 2016 - Cuba’s Dariel Albo put his scoring skills on display to lead his team to a 3-2 (25-19, 22-25, 25-19, 20-25, 15-9) win against Portugal and to finish their FIVB Volleyball World League 2016 Group 2 campaign on a high note.
Albo scored a fantastic 32 points, including three aces, towards the victory. His teammate Adrian Goide put in a great blocking effort, which resulted in seven points from that element. On Portugal’s side, Alexandre Ferreira was once again the best scorer, with 17 points on his tally.
Cuba and Portugal have now met nine times in the World League with the Caribbean team victorious on all nine occasions.
Cuba jumped to 10-5 lead in the first set and continued their domination with strong performances in attack and blocking. Cuba cruised to an easy 25-19 set victory. Dariel Albo scored a total of eight points, while blocking points went 4-0 to Cuba.
Cuba continued to play in a convincing fashion in set 2 and was leading by four points at 16-12. Portugal did not give up and tied the set at 17-17. Alex Ferreira’s spike sealed the set for Portugal at 25-22. He scored six points in this frame.
Cuba started set 3 well too and rushed to a 13-6 lead. Cuba maintained their good level through the set and wrapped it up at 25-19 with Albo’s spike. He played a very efficient set, scoring nine points.
Set 4 was a tough fight from both teams and it was still tied at 15-15. Portugal played convincingly the rest of the set and ended the fight at 25-20.
Cuba stormed to 8-5 lead in the tie-breaker set before Albo ended the match at 15-9 in favour of his team.