Barbados beat Guatemala and will debut in the quarterfinals

HAVANA, Cuba, August 28, 2018 - The Barbados team doubled the celebration of the triumph over Guatemala 3-1 (29-27, 19-25, 25-23, 25-17) as it advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time of a Norceca Sub-21 Men's Volleyball Tournament.

Both teams did not maintain a stable rhythm, but the Caribbean closed better and achieved their only success so far to secure third place in group A thanks to the advantage in the attack (50-46) and blocking (16-4)., because they were below in service (4-7) and committed more unforced errors (35-28).

The winners who scored double digits were wing spiker Akeel Oxley (21), middle blocker Akeil Williams (19) and the opposite Ashe Oxley (17), however the top scorer of the match was the Guatemalan opposite Edgar A. Maldonado (22) , followed by Punta Jonatan Paz (10).

John Stuart, coach of Barbados, expressed his satisfaction not only for the victory, "it is that our presence in the quarterfinals is historic in an event of this category, anyway the group is inconsistent although I recognize that they win in confidence every day and let them improve even more."

The setter Chad Callender conveyed the joy of his teammates "we achieved the victory but we can’t forget that we did not have a consistent game, although the attack was good and the block worked quite well".

Luis F. Castañeda, technical director of Guatemala, declared that "we did not expect it, the team played very badly, many faults in the receipt and we could not change that weaknessThere was no attitude or desire to play, we had to get into the fight and advance to quarters but the position of the group was really negative, and we could not get a win. "

His setter Daniel Ralon, obviously distressed thought that "I think there was a lack of confidence and we do not play with everything we have, because at the beginning we started with a good attitude, but then little by little we went down too much and so we could not win".