United States beats Guatemala in first match at U21 Pan Am Cup

NOGALES, Mexico, May 25, 2023.- The United States beat Guatemala 3-0 (25-8, 25-13, 25-14) in the first match of the U21 Women’s NORCECA Pan American Cup in Nogales, Mexico.

United States opened pool B strong and used all its players to stay in command with a 34-21 advantage in attacks, a huge 12-2 margin in blocks and 8-3 in aces.

The U.S. scored on 21 opponent errors and handed out 9.

Middle blocker Gabrielle Essix of the United States scored 13 points on 8 kills and 5 blocks, joined by outside hitter Mckenna Wucherer with seven points on 5 kills, one block and one ace. Outside hitter Eva Hudson added five points on 4 kills and one block.

The U.S. scored on 21 opponent errors and handed out 9.

Guatemala’s leading scorer was outside hitter Naomi Monney with 10 points on 9 kills and one ace; middle blocker Camila Gonzalez contributed with 6 points on 5 kills and one block.

On day two of the event the United States will face the Dominican Republic and Guatemala goes against Costa Rica.

 Rachel Fairbanks, captain of United States: “I was a solid win. One of our main focuses is being a more aggressive team and we did a good job of that, we could have improved in small balls, getting small tips. We love celebrating and it was a fun game”.

Dan Fisher, head coach of United States: “I liked that we were consistent, we didn’t give up a lot of runs in a row and that we were able to get a lot of players in; we’ll see how it goes. This is going to be a long tournament because we’re going to play every single day, maybe two times in a day so I think how we managed the load of the players was important”.

William Fernández, head coach of Guatemala: “The team started out shy because they were facing the champion of this age-group, a world power and senior Olympic champion, it’s a strong physical team and good technically. Guatemala was able to control the receiving on moments and that helped us play, we must improve in receiving to execute better”.