Kenya Carcases: We Have Volleyball for a Long Time
February 21, 2012, 6:00 pm  

By Lilian Cid*
lescalona@uci.cu
Translation by Ernesto Gutierrez Pino

In the international arena the Cuban women's volleyball has made history with their outstanding results. Most of their games have had thrilling ends.

They consecutively won three Olympic gold medals, 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney.

Kenia Carcases is one of the leaders in the new team and the most experienced. So decided to talk about her life and the Cuban women's volleyball:

L: You're only 26 years old, but you're the most experienced and therefore leader in the national team. ¿What does this mean exactly?

Kenya: Well, statistically about 60% of the balls are for me. If there is a turning point the pass come to me and I assume my responsibility to put the ball in the other side of the net.

L: The Olympic cycle from 2009 to 2012 has been hard for Cuban volleyball. The female team has not had a good performance. How do you assume this?

Kenya: I was in Rio, Beijing and all the Grand Prix and World Cups during the previous Olympic season, but that was a very organized and experienced team.

Now things are different. There are very talented girls such as Yoana Palacioss, Roxana Giel and Gisselle Silva, but they are very young and lack experience. The current global sport requires maintaining a high level throughout the match and the whole event.

L: The team had a good performance in the continental games, 2011 Guadalajara. Tell me your experience there.

Kenya: Oh, Guadalajara! The Pan-American Games were important, especially for me because I played as a star.

We arrived in Guadalajara after a pretty bad Grand Prix and a NORCECA tournament with many ups and downs.... But all this helped us because we had trained hard and were able to correct some of our mistakes.

Although we lost against Brazil 3 to 1 in the preliminaries, the final was very different, you know that a CUBA vs. Brazil is a classic in volleyball.

We went to the taraflex with that mind. Unfortunately, we lost a tie break playing a good game; we didn't keep the stability during the entire game.

L: Tell me about the pre-Olympic and milestones for Cuban women's volleyball this 2012.

Kenya: We are training hard, so we have volleyball for a long time. I think we can beat Dominican Republic and qualify. If we get the ticket here in NORCECA, of course we can focus on the Olympics, which is the main objective of the team.


*The author is Professor at the Computer Science University of Havana