Guatemala beats Trinidad and Tobago for seventh place in Barranquilla

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, August 2, 2018. - Guatemala finished seventh place beating Trinidad and Tobago 3-1 (25-22, 27-25, 23-25, 25-17) in the men’s volleyball tournament at the 2018 Barranquilla XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games at Humberto Perea Coliseum.

Guatemala edged Trinidad and Tobago up to the fourth set, starting on a comfortable five point lead and growing while finishing with a wider advantage.

Guatemala led in spikes with 55-42 margin and in aces with 6-2 advantage; Trinidad and Tobago did better in blocking with 15-10. Guatemala committed one more unforced error than Trinidad and Tobago (30-29).

Guatemala’s wing spiker Wagner Chacon led all scorers with 21 points on 18 kills and 3 blocks, middle blocker Leonel Aragon scored 16 points and wing spiker Carlos Lopez collected 15 points. Wing spiker Legall Brandon scored 18 points as Trinidad and Tobago’s top scorer and middle blocker Marc Honore contributed with 10 points.

Guatemala’s setter Adan Ruano expressed “this is the first experience for all of us in Central American and Caribbean Games; we are glad for finishing seventh. I believe we could have done more, but we must continue working to keep on adding. We must improve our unity as a team, we were overconfident by leading 2-0 and our opponent kept on with their same game level. We closed as soon as we could because we were worn out”. 

Marc Honore of Trinidad and Tobago said, “We need to play more matches, we played the whole tournament flat. Today Guatemala was the better team and we made too many mistakes. We need to be strong mentally and from there work on our skills, we have a lot to learn. I am proud of some good moments during the event and I think we can be a very good team in the future”.