Cuba defeated the Dominican Republic in the first day of the 2017 NORCECA 12th Men´s Pan American Cup, based in Gatineau, Canada, and they will face Mexico today.

According to the website of the tournament, Cubans won 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 21-25 and 25-22) in one hour and 41 minutes, with highlight to Miguel Angel Lopez.

Lopez was the top scorer of the game with 23 points, and was escorted by Miguel David Gutierrez (18) and Livan Osoria (10), while Henry Lopez (16), José Caceres (14) and Elvis Contrera (14) stood out for the losing side.

In the other match of this Group A, United States beat 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 22-15 and 25-18) Mexico, while in Poole B, Argentina surpassed 3-0 (25-20, 25-14 and 25-17) Puerto Rico, and Canada won 3-1 (25-17, 25-27, 25-15 and 25-22) over Venezuela.

Today´s other matches are the DR-USA, Argentina-Venezuela, and Canada-Puerto Rico.

The leaders of each Poole will advance directly to semifinals, while the second and third seats will go to quarterfinals, and if winning they qualify to semi-finals.

In the history of this tournament, United States appears as leader in the standings with five gold and two silver medals, followed by Brazil (3-0-0), Cuba (2-0-1), Mexico (1-1-0), Argentina (0-4-2), Canada (0-2-3), DR (0-1-3), Puerto Rico (0-1-1) and Venezuela (0-1-1).