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DURANGO, Mexico, August 18, 2021.- United States
needed five sets to beat Guatemala 3-2 (24-26,
25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 15-10) to open the Men’s NORCECA Championship in Auditorio del Pueblo in
Durango, Mexico.
Guatemala started off strong recovering from a
five-point deficit (18-23) winning the first
set, marking the rhythm for the sets to come.
U.S. outside hitter William Rottman scored a
match-high of 21 points alongside opposite Jake
Hanes with 20 points to hold off Guatemala in
the end; outside hitter Brett Wildman
contributed with 18 points, middle blockers
Keenan Sanders and Tyler Mitchem added 13 and 12
points respectively.
Outside hitter Carlos Chacón and opposite José
Carrillo were Guatemala’s top scorers with 16
points each, joined by Gerardo González with 12
points and middle blocker Jason Hernández
chipped in with 10 points.
The U.S. led with 73-52 advantage in attacks, a
huge 11-3 margin in blocks and 5-3 in serves;
they committed 46 unforced errors compared to 23
from Guatemala.
United States (1-0) next opponent is Dominican
Republic and Guatemala (0-1) will face defending
champion Cuba.
Joshua Tuaniga, Captain of United States:
“Things weren’t going well for us, we weren’t
able to put pressure with our serves, missing a
lot of them and blocking opportunities as well.
Guatemala played really good volleyball all
around, I was glad to be able to play this kind
of volleyball at the beginning of the
tournament, kudos for Guatemala and shout out to
the guys for really staying in and pushing
through”.
Andy Read, Coach of United States: “Guatemala
has been together for a long time and it shows
in the quality of how they play, it didn’t
surprise me the result. For many of our guys
this is their first match on the senior team, so
we had to figure out some things along the way,
we trusted our system and in each other got us
the fifth set win. We got to continue improving
our ability in serves and continue to improve as
a team; this is only our first match”.
Carlos López, Captain of Guatemala: “We are
really exciting for our performance against such
a great team like the United States, we had
nothing to lose and a lot to win and we did,
this motivates us for our next matches. We had
miscommunication, we need to adjust that”.
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