Guatemala blanked St. Lucia

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado USA (Sept. 29, 2017) – Guatemala blanked St. Lucia 25-17, 25-15, 25-16 on Friday during the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship Classification 5-10 round in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In the process, Guatemala won its first match of the tournament.

Guatemala was led by Andy Leonardo Blanco’s 18 points and Wagner Chacon contributed another 11 points.

St. Lucia captain Joseph Clercent scored a team-high 12 points and Anfernee Ferdinand added six points.

Guatemala tallied a 9-1 block advantage along with a 5-2 ace margin.

Guatemala now advances to the Classification 5-8 round. St. Lucia will finish its tournament on Saturday at 3 p.m. MT by playing St. Vincent.

The NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship is a qualification tournament into the 2018 FIVB World Championship. The top three teams in the 10-team field earn berths into the World Championship, while the top two teams in a second NORCECA qualifier held later this fall round out NORCECA’s five vacancies into the world event.

Guatemala Coach Julio Dominguez: “The attitude within the team was the key to the victory since we came in from losing to USA and Dominican Republic. It is the same as going for gold for us when going for fifth place – that is what we are working. We are taking this tournament to work on a very important tournament at the end of the year.”

Guatemala Captain Gerardo Antonio Gonzalez Paz: “This was a great win for the team. The attitude is getting better after losing to USA and Dominican Republic. Now we are going step by step to reach our goal of finishing in fifth place. We are still working on our speed of our game.”

St. Lucia Coach Terry Verdant: “In each match, we have been getting better and better. We still need to work on our defense in order to win tomorrow’s match.”

St. Lucia Player Joseph Clercent: “I think we have a very young team. We have a lot of work to do because back home we don’t have this level of volleyball. So this is a good experience for our team. We just need to keep working and pushing ourselves.”