Guatemala finishes NORCECA Men’s Championship with win

 

MONCTON, Canada, September 16, 2026. – Guatemala went out on a winning note Wednesday at the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship.

 

The Guatemalans bested Curaçao 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-20) in the seventh-place matchup to cap their tournament at the Avenir Centre in Moncton.

 

It looked like it might be a closer matchup in the first set, with Curaçao holding a 15-14 lead midway and staying within one point as late as 21-20. But Guatemala finished with four of the last five points to win. The second set was more comfortable for Guatemala, which led most of the way. With the score 19-13, Curaçao scored five straight points, including three big kills by Derwin Colina, but Guatemala came back with six of the last eight. The Guatemalans never trailed again as they finished the job in the third set.

 

The teams were even on attacks (40-40), blocks (5-5) and aces (4-4). The difference was in opponent errors, with Guatemala benefiting from 26 of Curaçao’s to just 12 the other way.

 

Andy Blanco led Guatemala with 16 points, followed by Carlos Lopez with 14. Lopez and Blanco each added a match-high seven digs. Shuruendy Valeriano was Curaçao’s top scorer with 11 points, while Colina chipped in 10.

 

Curaçao was unable to win a set on the way to an eighth-place finish in the eight-team tournament.

 

Reider Lucas, Guatemala coach: “We’re very happy to participate in this type of competition. We’ve had the opportunity to compete in five continental events this year, which has been very valuable in helping us continue to develop our volleyball program. We knew this would be a very challenging tournament, and we’re pleased to finish with a win in our final match and take seventh place. We were unable to bring our full roster, but the players who were able to come showed they could compete.”

 

Adolfo Hernandez, player, Guatemala: “It was a hard match, a really nice match. As a team we are united, so that helped us to get the victory 3-0. The results could be better but we learned a lot from the experience here. As a young team with a lot of young players we did really great. Our young generation are heading to El Salvador for another competition, the NORCECA U23 Pan American Cup.”

 

Daal Henrich, Curaçao coach: “We saw how other teams do it, we saw the next level. It’s a bit disappointing the way we played today because we know we can play better. It’s experience that we take home, now we need to get better technically and get better physically to compete at this level. We are happy we came here. Canada was nice to us and really great hosts. Everything was great and we look forward to coming back here sometime again.”