Guatemala prevails against tough Trinidad & Tobago

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, June 25, 2014- Guatemala debuted at the Girls’ U-18 NORCECA Championship with a straight-set victory 25-19, 25-19, 25-20 over Trinidad & Tobago  on at Gimnasio Nacional of San Jose on Wednesday.

In their first outing, Guatemala was challenged by a tough Trinidad & Tobago who maintained the score very tight, even taking the lead on several occasions during the Pool A match. For Trinidad & Tobago it was their second loss as they also succumbed to Costa Rica on Tuesday.

Guatemala dominated Trinidad & Tobago with a wide 12-1 margin in services points, while the losers weren’t able to take advantage of their better blocking performance by 7-0.

Topping Guatemala’s scorers was middle blocker Maria Garcia who tallied 11 points and outside hitter Maria Alarcon with 10 points. On Trinidad & Tobago’s side, outside hitter Reann Young led with 12 points.

Christa Reinoso captain of Guatemala said they were nervous. “We thought it would be easier and it wasn’t, we were anxious to begin the championship and it was difficult to avoid their blocking. We need to work harder and define our passing better”.

Reann Young captain of Trinidad & Tobago said: “We didn’t have consistency in our blocking; we need to be stronger and have more determination in winning.”

“It would be selfish not to acknowledge that this victory is due to Coach William Fernandez who wasn’t able to be here,” Guatemala’s Coach David Aldana said. “This is a complicated pool, the three teams play at the same level and we knew that Trinidad & Tobago would block us all the way. This is the category that we need to develop and work harder because in the senior category both Trinidad & Tobago and Costa Rica are in a higher level than ours”.

Macsood Ali coach of Trinidad & Tobago continues to be upset. “I know my team can do much better; we are not playing with rhythm as we can’t sustain an advantage in the score; our inexperience shows”.