United States Sweeps Guatemala in Opening Match

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, September 26, 2017 – The United States had little trouble defeating Guatemala, 25-12, 25-14, 25-10 in their opening pool play match on Tuesday at the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

The U.S. Men led in aces (13-0), kills (35-16) and blocks (5-2).

U.S. opposite Matt Anderson led all scorers with 16 points on a match-high 12 kills, one block and three aces. Outside hitter Aaron Russell added 14 on eight kills, one block and five aces. Outside hitter Taylor Sander scored 10 points.

Guatemala had three players who each scored five points, opposite Erik Flores Dias, middle blocker Andy Leonardo Blanco and middle blocker Leonel Aragon Lopez. Guatemala scored 18 points off U.S. errors.

The United States is the tournament’s top seed and also had a significant height advantage over Guatemala. Guatemala did its best to play strong defense, but struggled to dig the United States’ tough serves and attacks.

U.S. Head Coach John Speraw: “Sometimes when you’re playing teams at NORCECA and you don’t know much about them and the chances are high that you’re going to win, you can ease off. We talked a lot about how we just need to play USA Volleyball and I thought our guys did a great job of that.”

U.S. Captain Micah Christenson: “It’s another opportunity to compete. We don’t get opportunities like this to play in front of our home fans a lot. We want to play good volleyball and we want to give the best that we can and play clean volleyball; give a good show. That’s playing USA Volleyball; scrapping for every dig and playing as hard as we can no matter who is on the other side of the court.”

Guatemala Team Captain Gerardo Gonazalez Paz: "We played against a very fierce team. The energy that the U.S. had was pretty intense. Something that weren't used to, but we felt good that we went up against them."

What helped the U.S. to win the match?

"Their height and their velocity."