Nicaragua leads AFECAVOL WCQT

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 3, 2016. – Nicaragua leads the AFECAVOL Women’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament after beating Guatemala by a wide 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-14) score on Saturday at the IND Volleyball venue in Managua, Nicaragua.

Nicaragua subdued Guatemala completely by stopping their opponents’ offensive line and remaining undefeated with 3-0 win-loss record and a total of 14 points, booking a ticket to next year’s Worlds qualifier. Guatemala concludes their campaign with 3-1 record, 13 points and also a spot to next year’s qualification round. Nicaragua (3-0) faces El Salvador (1-2) on the last day of competition.

The home team dominated all categories with 39-24 margin in kills, 10-5 in blocking and 2-1 in aces. Nicaragua allowed 21 points in errors and Guatemala 24.

Setter Lolette Rodriguez led Nicaragua with 13 points; opposite Amalia Hernandez and middle blocker Josafat Diaz contributed to Nicaragua’s victory with 11 and 10 points respectively. Opposite Rut Gomez was the only player with double digits on Guatemala’s side, scoring 12 points.

Claudia Noguera, Nicaragua’s captain was very excited, she said “we were very effective, it feels good to work together as a team and we did things well. We fought every single point, we were focused in our performance, we set our rhythm and all these aspects were our key to victory. We have studied Guatemala to control their spikers; for me this is a Central American classic and in the recent past we’ve finished on top”. 

Yesterday, Nicaraguan coach Rene Quintana said he was expecting the match to finish in three sets “what surprised me was the big difference in scores of the last two sets. Our team executed the game plan well, we were able to stop Guatemala’s strongest aspects; everything turned out well. Volleyball is sport of errors, the team with less errors wins. The tournament ends until tomorrow, we have on match left, and for me every match is important”.

About Guatemala’s performance, Blanc Recinos said “Nicaragua played better, they deserve all the credit. They knew that our outside hitters are the strongest and they blocked us all the way, we weren’t left alone. We lacked definition, the attackers; me included didn’t do our job because our receivers and defense worked well. The positive aspect is that our team worked together despite feeling bad for being down on the score, we are a young team and we are growing step by step, I know better results are on their way”.

“Winning the tournament was our main goal, we advanced into the next round and there’s much to work on, including the psychological aspects, we need to know one another more. There is no discussion that Nicaragua prevailed in every skill, today they proved to be well built. Our attacking was weak and we weren’t offensive” said Cuban coach William Fernandez.

por seguir trabajando, entre eso la parte psicológica, debemos conocernos más. Nicaragua nos superó en todos los aspectos indiscutiblemente, es un equipo bien formado y lo demostraron. Nosotros no definimos en el ataque y no fuimos ofensivos” dijo el entrenador cubano William Fernández de Guatemala.