Osaka, Japan, June 17, 2016 - Ricardo Norberto Calvo Manzano scored 14 points including impressive eight points from blocking as Cuba saw off Korea 3-2 (33-31, 25-18, 14-25, 22-25, 15-6) in their first Pool B2 match at 2016 FIVB World League.
The match high of 18 points scored by Korea's Hak-Min Kim did not help his team to register a second win in 45 encounters against Cuba so far. The Asian team prevailed over Cuba only once in the 2011 World League 3-0.
Both teams were trading the points at the beginning, but with an ace from Uriarte, Cuba got off to a 6-4 lead. The first set saw the Cuba team extending their lead to 18-11 and an amazing recovery from Korea to level up the score at 21-21. Cuba kept their nerves calm to eventually take the set 33-31.
Cuba managed to carry over their winning attitude into the second set as they left no doubt and took it 25-18.
In set three Korea established a small advantage at the beginning and were able to extend it and to close out the set at 25-14. The proceedings in set four were similiar to set three as Korea again took an early advantage and raced off to a 25-22 win.
In the tiebreaker Cuba regrouped allowing Korea to win only six points to enjoy a 3-2 overall victory.