Guatemala improves record 2-1 defeating Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, August 10, 2014.- Guatemala defeated hosts Honduras 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-19) at the II Women’s U-23 AFECAVOL Central American Championship in the closing match of Sunday night in Jorge A. Galeano Gymnasium.

With the completion of four days of competition, Guatemala improves their win-loss record by 2-1 and accumulates ten points, while the hosts Honduras drop to 2-2 conserving ten points.

Guatemala and Honduras started off maintaining the actions very tight, with the winners taking an early seven point lead in the second set from which the local team wasn’t able to recover from. Guatemala had to work harder in the third set to finally move the score further away in the third set.

Guatemala dominated in kills by 36-26 and in service points by 5-4, while Honduras in blocking by 4-3. Guatemala committed fewer unforced errors (22) than Honduras (31).

Opposite Lourdes Cruz led Guatemala’s scorers with 12 points, along with outside hitters Maria Guzman with 11 points and Nadia Galan with 9 points. Honduras’ was led by outside hitter Lesby Midence with 12 points.

Captain Maria Alvarez of Guatemala indicated “we were more disciplined and sticking to our tactics, we stayed focused to earn the victory in straight sets, because we want to continue advancing; our job was much better in the second set”.

“Unfortunately we had difficulties getting our rhythm started, our energy was low and Guatemala knew how to benefit from our actions. It was too late in the game when we began to be more effective. I want to thank the support of the crowd today, it helped us push stronger” said captain Eloisa Sarmiento.

Coach David Aldana said to be content with the result and he was surprised by Honduras average performance “I want to congratulate them because they have improved a lot since we met with this group in Colorado but we expected more resistance from what Honduras had shown so far in the tournament. Except from Costa Rica, we all have similar conditions and the result was difficult to predict. About my team, today they did a very good job, they are more settled, making it easier to play fast which is our distinctive; I believe if we continue on this track we can finish in second”.

“I agree that we play similar with most of the teams here” started coach Marco Tejada. “To play volleyball you need a hot heart and a cold mind. We engaged in uncertainties, indecisions and fear, which turned into meaningless errors and we can’t be giving away points to our opponents and making them take the advantage. My team’s performance is decreasing instead of improving, we need to play more disciplined” he concluded.