Costa Rica beats Guatemala to finish fifth place

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, July 13, 2014.- Costa Rica beat hosts Guatemala 3-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-9, 25-15) in the match for fifth place of the Women’s U-20 NORCECA Continental Championship on Sunday at Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium

The Central American teams met during the preliminary round and the result this time around was no different with Costa Rica edging the home team. Costa Rica finishes in fifth place with a 3-1 win-loss record and Guatemala in sixth concludes with 1-3 record.  

Costa Rica held a wide margin in attacks by 46-25 and in blocking by 12-9. Guatemala was better in serves by 7-5.

Outside hitter Tania Carazo with 16 points was Costa Rica’s top scorer, joined by opposite Tatiana Sayles with 12 points. Guatemala’s top scorer was outside hitter Jessica Anleu with12 points.

“We’re happy to have reached our goal, proving that Costa Rica is the best team in Central America” said captain Tatiana Sayles.

“Guatemala lacked concentration and our errors were too many; we need to practice harder and gain more experience, we only did what we could” said captain Jessica Anleu.

Costa Rica’s Coach Martin Rodriguez indicated “first I want to congratulate Guatemala’s hospitality and great organization; I anticipate that every competition in their hands will be a successful one. Today’s tactic was different and the results speak for themselves; our blocking was more efficient and we played faster. We need to promote a healthy competition among Central American teams and I believe this was evident in today’s match”.

Cuban coach William Fernandez explained that this a new team “we lack experience, it’s not the same that won the Central American title and we need to look for more international exposure. The team lacks leadership and the players need to practice harder. If Central America wants to compete in NORCECA tournaments we must make our own zone grow”.