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GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, October 20, 2015.-Guatemala wins
their fourth match in a row while beating Honduras 3-0 (25-19,
26-24, 25-12) at the AFECAVOL Men’s U-19 Central American
Championship in Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.
Guatemala remains unbeaten with 4-0 win-loss record and eighteen
points, while Honduras drops to 3-1 and has fourteen points. In
day six of competition Guatemala meets with the other undefeated
of the tournament Nicaragua (4-0) and Honduras faces Costa Rica
(3-1).
Guatemala and Honduras gave a wonderful display of defense. In
the first set actions were even, both teams committed unforced
errors and performed with strong offense over the net;
Guatemala’s blocking managed to take over Honduras and won with
a comfortable margin. Actions in the second set were nerve
wrecking, Honduras blocking improved and both continued to
defend every attack forcing long rallies and extending the end
to 26-24. Guatemala performed to their best jumping to nine
point lead despites Honduras efforts in keeping the ball in
action. Guatemala’s powerful kills were difficult to contain;
they also managed a great defense to finish in straight sets.
The home team held a huge 39-17 advantage in spikes and 3-1 in
aces; Honduras topped in blocking with 8-5. Both committed 29
unforced errors.
Guatemala’s offense was led by captain Andy Rodriguez with 11
points, setter Edgar Maldonado with 10 points, opposite Sergy
Rodgiguez and outside hitter Jonatan Paz tallied 9 points
apiece. Setter Jerries Azar topped Honduras with 8 points and
opposite Jonathan Giron added 7 points.
Andy Rodríguez said “congratulations to Honduras, they performed
well; we committed fewer errors in the third set and that’s why
we held a bigger advantage, the passing was better and therefore
the setting improved, giving us more chances to score by spiking
and our blocking settled as well”.
Carlos Mondragon captain of Honduras said “we lacked a better
attitude and concentration; we have never before performed with
a crowd and some of us couldn’t handle it, they were wrong in
getting involved with the crowd. We started to discuss among
each other, this had never happened before which made us lose
focus and making more errors. Losing the second set like we did
disappointed us”.
“There were ups and downs; these matches have more intensity
because these are the teams fighting for a medal. The first set
was tight but we evolved well with intelligence over the net; in
the second set we committed fewer errors that Honduras didn’t
take to full advantage even if their blocking hurt us, some bad
calls from the referee were in our favor and my setter followed
the instructions to play with combinations. These combinations
were used in the third set and Honduras wasn’t able to respond
as well with blocking” said coach Alvinzi Pelaez.
Coach Marvin Ulloa of Honduras indicated “in this age-group the
players are developing and they are not used to play in front of
a crowd, they must also learn to control this aspect. Our
blocking executed well in the second set, I wasn’t expecting
that and it satisfies me. In the third set our receiving failed
and the team lost control, this brought stress among my players.
It was a good match, we played well up to the second set and we
must feel happy for that; the players also need to manage stress
and not be discouraged”. |
