Teams aim for the World Championship at U18 Pan Am Cup

DURANGO, Mexico, May 20 2019. - On the eve of the fifth U18 Girls’ Pan American Cup, the eight coaches of the national teams gave their first impressions of the event that grants two tickets to the FIVB age-group World Championship.

Eduardo Guillaume, Chile: “We are bringing a combination of U15 and U18 players; we are in the process of building a new group of players in Chile. In November the U15 group will compete at the South American championship and we want to gain experience, while the U18 has been working hard for over a year, with our minds set on the 2023 Pan-American Games. We will play the best way possible and try to win all our matches; there are other teams here who can win the ticket to worlds”.

Jaime Echeverría, Cuba: “Our mission is to qualify to the World Championship, we will battle strong. I expect a nice competition, most of the teams here have been preparing specially for this event, and many had the same strategy of not using the same players for the U20 Pan American Cup. In our analysis and after studying our opponents, this will be a highly competitive tournament”.

Alexandre Ceccato, Dominican Republic: “Our goal is to qualify to the world championship. Cuba is one of the strongest team here and I think our toughest matches will be against Mexico (as hosts they are difficult) and Puerto Rico. We have prepared hard and part of the team comes from competing at the U20 Pan American Cup in Peru”.

William Fernández, Guatemala: “Our objective is to win experience; our team’s height is low, se we expect all the matches to be difficult. This team has only three different players from the team that recently competed at the U20 Pan American Cup in Peru. We have been working in the team’s moral because our results haven’t been as expected. We hope

Catarine Leiva, Honduras: “For us this is a step forward in winning experience and preparing our team for Central American championships, this is a great preparation tournament. My team is new, this is a challenge for them, I decided to take the risk for them to gain experience. In this specific category we are Afecavol champions and our goal is to keep being number one”. 

Ricardo Ponce, México: “Hosting is of great pressure but it’s also favorable for the players energy, the fans play an important role for the team, it is positive. We have little time practicing but the concentration good, they want to play and represent Mexico well and with high expectations in their individual growth. This team is competitive and will put up a fight in every match”.

Natalia Malaga, Peru: “I believe this will be a tough competition, my girls are unpredictable, which is natural at this age, they lack maturity and experience; I know they can do well but it all comes to their concentration in every match. My team comes from competing at the U20 Pan American Cup, they had a good experience and the competition was very strong compared to our previous preparation, we had the chance to compete at a higher level”.

Juan Carlos Rodríguez, Puerto Rico: “Last week were in Peru, we used it as preparation for this event in which we’re looking to qualify, we have young players under 16 years old and they bring a lot of experience. As in the edition 2014 of this event, we hope to win the ticket to the World Championship”.