United States Sweep Guatemala, Earn Spot in Qualifier Final

COLORADO SPRINGS, United States, May 16, 2014 – The United States used balanced scoring to dominate Guatemala 25-12, 25-14, 25-16 Friday evening to improve to 2-0 in the Men’s NORCECA World Championship Qualification Third-Round Pool O Tournament being held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

With the victory, the Americans earned a spot into Sunday’s gold-medal match with a trip to the 2014 FIVB World Championship going to the winner. Russell Holmes scored 14 points to lead a quartet of Americans in double-digit scoring. Aaron Russell added 12 points, while Murphy Troy and Sean Rooney tacked on 10 points.

Guatemala’s Jeyson Nery led his squad with seven points.

The U.S. out-blocked Guatemala 8-2 and held a 5-3 ace advantage.  The Americans limited their errors to 13 for the match.

The USA will end pool play on Saturday against Haiti (1-1) at 7 p.m. MT, while Guatemala (1-1) will look to earn its second victory over St. Lucia (1-1) in a key battle at 5 p.m. to reach the gold-medal match. The top two teams in the four-team NORCECA World Championship Qualifier will play for the gold medal.

USA Team Captain Sean Rooney: “It was great to see some new faces for the senior team that we haven’t seen before. Aaron Russell, Ryan Ammerman, I thought those guys played great.. Dan McDonnell again. We’re just going to play again tomorrow and keep doing what we’re doing. Everyone on this team is working so hard all the time and that’s what we take pride in as a team.”

USA Head Coach John Speraw: “I thought we did great. I really did focus a ton on what we were doing, but (Guatemala) really did play hard. They were very scrappy. They dug a few balls and played with a lot of enthusiasm. They used our block a little bit and did some things I think we need to go back and learn from.”

Guatemala Head Coach Alvinzi Pelaez: "The USA has a great team. It's obvious they are going to be one of the top seeds in the World Championships. We tried our best to get as many points as possible tonight. We fought for every point because they were giving it back to us so hard. We wanted to play a good game. There were a lot of people who came out to watch and we wanted to play good volleyball for everyone who was here. We made sure it was not going to be an easy win for the USA. We fought hard for everything we got."

Guatemala Captain Oscar Garcia: "We are really proud to be able to play against a team like the United States. As long as we play with a lot of heart, we can accomplish a lot of things. The USA is just super-strong overall. Their serves were just crazy. They hit hard. It was like rockets. But we are leaving tonight super-happy and we are totally ready to play tomorrow and show up strong."