Dominican Republic gets important win over Guatemala

WINNIPEG, Canada, September 4, 2019 - Dominican Republic defeated Guatemala 3-1 (29-27, 25-19, 25-27, 25-18) in Wednesday’s first match of the 2019 Men’s NORCECA Continental Championship at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada.

Dominican captain Henry Omar Tapia dominated all individual performances with 34 points, including eight aces, 24 attacking points and two blocks.

“I am very happy because of the win today,” said Tapia. “I think we can keep getting better and now we hope to win tomorrow in the quarterfinals. I feel we are improving.”

Carlos Lopez and Brandon Franco of Guatemala had 13 and 12 points respectively for the losing side.

This was the Dominican Republic’s first win of the tournament, and Guatemala is 0-3. This puts the Dominican side in tomorrow’s quarterfinals.

Dominican Republic coach, Jose Alexander Gutierrez: “This type of tournament has three levels, USA, Cuba, Canada on one level, then Mexico, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic…. Guatemala is on another level, but we always have very tight matches with them. It’s part of the game. It’s one of our goals, to maintain our position… we are looking forward to tomorrow; you never know what can happen.”

Gerardo Paz, player from Guatemala: “We are disappointed a little bit. We started well in the first set, but we were not able to close it at around 22 or 23, and after that our attitude was a little down. We recovered a bit in the third, but were not able to keep on the same track in the fourth.  We played really good against teams such as Cuba and the USA, today was not our best game, but overall it’s been a good experience for our team.”