Thriller comeback win for Guatemala at AFECAVOL WCQT

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, November 30, 2016.- Guatemala came from behind to win their first match at the AFECAVOL Women’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament defeating Honduras 3-2 (21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 25-17, 15-9).

Honduras took charge of the actions breaking Guatemala’s defense to win sets one and two rather easily.  Guatemala recovered from a five point deficit pocketing set three with a lot of effort, while in set four Guatemala’s blocking was crucial, leaving Honduras without resources.

Guatemala held impressive advantage in kills 51-37 and in blocking by 14-5, while Honduras dominated in serves 10-5. Guatemala scored on 38 opponent errors and Honduras on 45.

Opposite player Rut Gomez led Guatemala with 19 points, joining efforts with outside hitter Blanca Recinos with 17 points, while Ada Villalobos and Dayrin Alarcon added 11 points apiece. Cecille Johnson of Honduras topped all scorers with 22 points and her teammate outside hitter Lourdes Morales contributed with 10 points.

Guatemala (1-0) plays against El Salvador (0-1) on Thursday, while Honduras has the day off.

Blanca Recinos captain of Guatemala said “both teams played to a great level, Honduras took us by surprise and we were able to recover improving our attitude, added to our desire to win. Our coaches’ tactical strategy helped to improve our energy. Honduras played very well and they were always on top of us. I am satisfied that we were able to comeback but we are aware that we did things wrong”.

Cecille Johnson Honduras’ top scorer indicated “it’s a difficult loss, we had the match in our hands, I believe we needed to put much more effort and play together as a team”.

Assistant coach Julio Dominguez of Guatemala explained “this was the typical first match of a tournament, the team need to adjust better and suffer the consequences of their lack of experience of playing young and older players together. Sadly we didn’t have preparation matches and it’s up until now that we can establish strategies for each situation. Guatemala showed its ability to make changes in blocking and receiving, but mostly in serving, we failed in the beginning, the team was lost”.

Cuban Marcos Tejeda, coach of Honduras considers his players need to follow instructions better and try not to lose concentration “we dominated Guatemala the whole time, my players lost confidence and our opponent took advantage of the situation. We need to work more on the psychological factors surrounding the team, the team lost control while losing one of our players during the match. I tried to direct them but they weren’t focused, we annulled Guatemala but they knew how to recover, they managed to improve and we went on playing badly”.