Peruvian Volleyball once again faces a great international challenge with the participation of the women’s team in the Challenger Cup, a qualifying tournament for the most important event organized by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB): the “2020 Nations League”. The team lead by “Paco” Hervás starts the final stretch of their preparation for Lima 2019.
Peru’s debut in Group A will be against Croatia tomorrow at 20:00, at the Manuel Bonilla Coliseum in Miraflores, while the second match will be against Czech Republic on Friday, at the same time. The first two teams in this Group will pass to the semifinals and will compete against the teams qualified in Group B, formed by Argentina, Canada and Chinese Taipei.
Unlike women’s European teams, who are at a good pace after participating in the Golden League a few days ago, the Peruvian team finished an intense training phase at the Callao Sports Center. Hervás has only trained with the whole team for the past two weeks. However, he will try to level up his team with the technical strengths they applied during the training sessions.
“We will face teams that mark a physical difference in attacking and blocking, but we have the resources to counter those strengths. We don’t often compete against teams at the level of the countries participating in this tournament, so this will give us an idea on what to improve for the Pan American Games,” said the coach.
Hitter Ángela Leyva assured that they will give their best performance. “Our plus is that we’ve known each other for a long time, and even if we face renowned opponents, we will counter them with our strengths. This tournament will serve to boost the team’s performance in every way,” she said.
VOLLEYBALL IN LIMA 2019
The volleyball matches at the Pan American Games will be governed by the rules of the International Volleyball Federation. The men’s competition will begin on July 31 and end on August 4, while the women’s competition will be held between August 7 and 11. The venue for the volleyball competitions will be the Callao Sports Center, with a capacity of 6100 spectators.
Women’s national volleyball team is in pool A along with Canada, Dominican Republic, and Colombia. Meanwhile, USA, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Argentina are in pool B. Men’s national team will play against Argentina, Cuba, and Puerto Rico in pool A, while Brazil, Mexico, Chile and USA will be in pool B.
The competition format includes a round-robin preliminary round for the two four-team pools (A and B). The first two teams of each group will qualify to the semifinals. The two winners of the semifinal will qualify to the final match for the gold medal. The third-place teams of each group will compete for the fifth and sixth place in the qualifying round.