Panama Women Earn Spot in Pool O Final

COLORADO SPRINGS, United States, May 17, 2014  – Panama rallied to defeat Guatemala (16-25, 25-16, 18-25, 25-23, 15-11 on Saturday afternoon in a five-set battle that decided which team would advance to the Women’s NORCECA World Championship Qualification Tournament Pool O gold-medal match at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Panama will face host United States in the title match on Sunday at 3 p.m. MT. The winner advances to the FIVB World Championship, which begins in September in Italy.

Panama was led by Katherine Taju’s 20 points and Joanna Arroyo added 17 points. Blanca Recinos led Guatemala with 18 points, while Stefany Bolanos matched her total with 18 points. Diana Arias contributed 11 points.

While Panama enjoyed a 14-6 block advantage, Guatemala led in kills (49-44) and aces (8-5).

Panama Head Coach Reynaldo Ortega: "Ever since we have been training for this tournament, our main objective has been to beat Honduras, beat Guatemala and go to the finals and maybe get second place. I am satisfied with our performance so far, and I want to congratulate my team on today's win.”

Panama Captain Joanna Arroyo: "First of all I have to give the honor to God because I think he was in the middle of all this. We really prayed for this game ... we prayed to be focused and I think that was one of the keys to helping us win the match. Even though we were down, we came back up and finished up strong. I am very proud of my coach. He is short, but he's got a big heart."

Guatemala Head Coach David Aldana: “The main difference today was the lack of confidence and trusting in what we could do. In the fifth set, we did not see that trust and confidence come through.”

Guatemala Captain Diana Arias: “Above anything else and what Panama did, at the end we were not concentrating and that made us lose. Tomorrow we will come in as we did today with the same desire – to win. We play Honduras and hope for a better outcome.”