Guatemala defeats Belize in second victory

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 11, 2017.- Guatemala defeated Belize 3-0 (25-20, 25-17. 25-23) earning their second victory at the men’s Volleyball tournament of the 2017 Managua Central American Games being held at Alexis Argüello sport complex.

Guatemala had a rough beginning and ending against Belize, but they knew how to set their pace while finishing with a huge 40-27 margin in kills.  Guatemala had to work harder in sets one and three with Belizean demanding spikers. 

Belize held a slim 4-3 margin in aces and Guatemala 5-2 in the blocking category. Both teams allowed 27 points on errors.

Outside hitter Wagner Chacon led Guatemala’s scorers with 12 points on 11 kills and one block; outside hitter Carlos Lopez and opposite Erik Flores tallied 9 points apiece. Outside hitter Bryton Codd led all scorers with 13 points and opposite Karym Coleman added 10 points.

Guatemala’s (2-0) next opponent is Costa Rica (1-0) on day three of competition and Belize (0-1) will face Panama (0-1). 

Captain of Guatemala Gerardo Gonzalez: “In comparison to yesterday’s performance, our serves were off balance today. Our serves allow us to jump in the lead and move away in scores. What’s important is that we add five points to the general ranking”.

Head coach of Guatemala Reider Lucas: “I believe my team was overconfident and we mustn’t allow this behavior. We adjusted better in set two; we should perform like this always; we need to stabilize our rhythm. Our errors were performing complex two and I hope to improve our performance tomorrow”.

Head coach of Belize Albert Humes: “We lost focus in set two. We started off strong at the start of set one and then slowed down in the middle, and this went on the entire match. This is our problem, the team has ups and downs, I am trying to keep on the middle spiking but. We have a great team but we need to execute, we are physically prepared”.

Capitan de Belize Elton Anderson: “We found our momentum in sets one and three, playing our way, our blocking really set the tone to get real close. In set two we just went flat. This is the only game we’re going to lose”.