Guatemala debuts in AFECAVOL Cup beating Panama

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, December 6, 2014 - Defending champion Guatemala beat Panama 3-1 (25-20, 21-25, 25-23, 25-18) in their debut at the XVIII Men’s Central American Cup at Jorge Galeano Gymnasium in Tegucigalpa.

Guatemala began the defense of their title with a good performance, but gave Panama many opportunities to score. The defending champions held a wide advantage in kills 50-33, while Panama held the margin in blocking 16-14.

Guatemala’s Oscar Garcia led all scorers with 21 points, all in kills; teammate Andy Leonardo contributed to the winning cause with 10 points. On Panama’s side, outside hitters Oswald Marshall and Domingo Avila topped with 16 and 12 points respectively, middle blocker Jose Gonzalez added 11 points.

“Personally, I felt out of place and not too confident because I’ve been playing beach volleyball, but I’ll get in rhythm soon enough. We didn’t play too well and despite winning we wanted to finish in three sets. Panama performed well,” the captain of Guatemala Andy Leonardo said.

Panama’s captain Domingo Avila said: “Our team has strength and youth, but we lack concentration, experience and practice; the guys will be more confident because this is their first senior competition”.

Cuban coach Reider Lucas for Guatemala: “I’m happy for the win, we finished with four points, we would have preferred five but we hope for the best, we won despite committing many errors. Teams don’t show their capacity in the first matches in a tournament. Andy is coming back to indoor volleyball and he, as well as the other players, and need to stabilize their game level, making consciousness of their responsibility in the court. Panama performed very well, making mistakes at the end of the sets”.

Coach Horacio Angulo of Panama expressed: “Players are having problems with the psychological factor, this influences in key decisions, putting pressure to their performance and forcing them to commit unforced errors and losing the game.”