Cuba finally collected a win in its third straight full sets battle at the 2007 women's volleyball World Cup, edging Poland 3-2 in Sendai on Tuesday.

 

Coming off consecutive losses to the United States and Brazil on Saturday and Sunday, Cuba struggled past the wild card holder 21-25, 26-24, 22-25, 25-21 and 15-13 to improve to a 2-2 win-loss record and keep alive the hopes of qualifying for next year's Beijing Olympics directly.

 

"It's a long competition and it's still possible to make the best three if we don't lose any more games," said Cuba head coach Antonio Perdomo.

 

"Regarding today's games, as we dropped two sets, obviously we didn't have the right rhythm," he added. "I have to say I am not satisfied with the way we played, even though we won."

 

In the tie break, Cuba overcame an 8-6 deficit to overtake the lead at 11-10, but a block by Maria Liktoras and a good spike of Malgorzata Glinka pushed Poland up again at 13-12.

 

Then Nancy Carrillo and Zoila Barros stopped ice Anna Podolec twice in row before Carrillo sealed the victory for Cuba with an ace.

 

Carrillo converted on 15 of 19 spiking attempts and added five blocks to lead Cuba with 23 points. Yumilka Ruiz and Daimi Ramirez contributed 19 and 13 points respectively.

 

"I have to say that both teams played really hard and it was a great game," said Ruiz. "In the end, our players just played really well to win and I'm very happy with that."

 

Dropping to 1-3 in win-loss record, the Polish women only had a chance in theory of making top three in the 12-team round-robin tournament.

 

"I am happy with the volleyball we played today. I think we tried very hard," said Poland coach Marco Bonitta. "Having lost some games, what we have to do now is to believe in our strength and win as many games as possible."

 

In Osaka, South Korea beat Dominican Republic 26-24, 22-25, 25-20 and 25-21 for its first win in four tries.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 7, 2007)