Belize opens with tie-break win AFECAVOL round WCQT

BELIZE CITY, BELIZE, September 24, 2016.- Belize opened the AFECAVOL Men’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament defeating El Salvador in tie-break 3-2 (25-13, 18-25, 27-25, 18-25, 16-14) at St. Catherine Academy Center.

The crowd went frantic as the home team downed El Salvador in a thrilling five setter.

In set one, El Salvador lost their composure with Belize high flying ability over the net. Missed communications in Belize team, combined with El Salvador’s spiking efforts, tied the actions while El Salvador pocketed set two. Belize performed with solid kills and monster blocking stopping El Salvador good rhythm in set three. Belize was totally lost in set four, while El Salvador held enormous advantage to decide the match in tie-break.

On Sunday, El Salvador (0-1) faces Panama (0-1) and Belize (1-0) meets Guatemala.

Karym Coleman, captain of Belize: “We performed just how we practiced. We worked hard to come from behind and taking the win. Our libero, Riden, is doing well. I don’t like to think about a specific feature from our opponents, we just face them one at a time. In facing Guatemala, we must minimize our errors, every time we do that we blow out other teams”.

Delio Arruebarrena, coach of Belize: “I told my guys to stay focused, to serve safe and to be as strong as possible in their offense over the net. Our libero had to be taken out for a while because he suffered a strong cramp, but our middle blockers have practiced their receiving and they performed well. We distributed the attacks between, Bryton, Keith and Karym, this last one had more job to do to take off some weight from Bryton because he also receives”.

Rodrigo Chávez, captain of El Salvador: “Our team is lower than the average height of the team here so we bet on our collective intelligence. Belize has young players and we took advantage of their nervousness, they have a good structure. For the next match we’ll have a different strategy because our opponent is different from today and we are prepared to fight to the end”.

Nery Henriquez, coach of El Salvador: “Our game plan worked out well because we were able to play fast because Belize is a very tall team. With each country we have to play different and we have our strategy set to face Panama. In comparison with El Salvador, the weather here is too humid and hot, my players sweat a lot”.