Guatemala Over St. Vincent and the Grenadines 

Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA (Aug. 31, 2012) – Guatemala scored a 25-12, 25-16, 25-16 victory over St. Vincent and the Grenadines during the NORCECA Men’s Junior Continental Championship Friday afternoon at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.  

Guatemala will now advance to the fifth-place place match on Saturday at 13:00 and will face Friday’s winner of Honduras and Curacao, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines will play the loser at 11:00 on Saturday.  

Erick Noel Colindres Ipina, Gerardo Antonio Gonzalez Paz and Christopher Leon Du John all provided Guatemala with a team-high eight points.  

Ijahlon Butler led St. Vincent and the Grenadines with 10 points and Jahmal Small added four points.  

Guatemala held a sizeable 34-15 margin in kills, in addition to a 7-2 margin in blocks. Both teams had to overcome a high number errors with St. Vincent and the Grenadines committing 30 and Guatemala 24.  

Guatemala scored the opening set win 25-12 with six different players scoring at least one point. St. Vincent and the Grenadines bolted to a 5-1 advantage in the second set. Guatemala took the lead at 11-9 on a 6-1 scoring run and continued to push forward to a 25-16 victory with three different players starting the second set. St. Vincent and the Grenadines stayed close in the third set trailing 14-13, but Guatemala pull away with three unanswered points en route to a 25-16 victory.

“First of all I want to congratulate St. Vincent as they have been improving and have a great future,” Guatemala head coach Jorge Chavez said. “Today we had to win to advance, but knew it would not be easy to win 3-0. We had the chance to play all our players. The tactical orders were followed as planned. Now we get to play for fifth place. I am proud of my players as we have surpassed our expectations.”  

“We are happy with the results,” Guatemala captain Erick Noel Colindres Ipina said. “Even when sometimes our rhythm decreased, we still played well. We are happy that all our players played today. Now we will get ready for the next match. I would also like to congratulate St. Vincent as they gave us a fight.”  

“We would like to congratulate Guatemala, they played the better volleyball today,” St. Vincent and the Grenadines head coach Brian Burke said. “We have not played our best volleyball yet. In the second set we were leading up to the first technical timeout, but it went downhill. We need to be able to play consistent over a longer period of time. Now we have to forget about today’s and focus on tomorrow’s seventh-place match. It has been a pleasure to be here and learning a lot from the exposure here and watching the other teams compete.”  

“First I want to congratulate Guatemala,” St. Vincent and the Grenadines captain Ijahlon Butler said. “Today consistency was an issue. We can play better. Hopefully tomorrow we can play with more consistency.”