Setter Eemi Tervaportti passes the ball and center Sauli Sinkkonen is ready to attack.
Tampere, Finland, July 2, 2016 – Finland beat Cuba 3-1 (25-19, 25-12, 18-25, 25-21) in FIVB Volleyball World League Group 2 Pool I on Saturday.
Tuomas Sammelvuo, coach of Finland: The feeling now is tremendous. Over 4000 fans gave us a lot of extra energy. Volleyball can give this kind of great moments in life for us all. Yesterday I was disappointed, but today from the first ball our team had a great fighting spirit. The second set was probably our best volleyball this year. Service and sideout attacks were very good. Rolando Cepeda brought power to Cuban attacks and he was very difficult for us. However, I think that it was good for the team that we did not win too easily. Now I am really happy.
Eemi Tervaportti, captain of Finland: First two sets we played very good volleyball. In the third set Cuba came well prepared. It was however nice to see that after so bad set we could come back and play good volleyball again. We have an excellent team spirit which helped us again.