Panama defuses St Vincent to head to championship match

ROAD TOWN, Tortola, July 28, 2013 – Panama steered their course manfully to oust St Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-12) to record their second win in Group K of the 2014 FIVB NORCECA Men’s Qualifiers here at the Multi-Purpose Sports Complex Sunday morning.

The win assured the Panamanians a shot of the group’s top honours where they will meet the Dominican Republic tonight in the final.

In both teams last preliminary match, it was an even contest in the first set, but the Panamanians pulled away to calm the efforts of the Vincentians.

Looking ahead to the next match against the Dominican Republic, head coach of Panama, Horacio Calderon said: “ We have taken  a good step by beating St Vincent and the Grenadines and we will be working hard against the Dominican Republic … We know it is going to be a tough game”.

The Panama coach was conservative in his approach to his team’s title match.

“We can’t say we will win the game because the Dominican Republic is a strong team with lots of experience… What we want to do is to be able to take a set of two from them and see what happens”, Calderon advanced.

And, with no further to go but to aim for the third spot, head coach of St Vincent and the Grenadines- Dominic White said that is the next best undertaking for his team, having succumbed  to Panama.

“We are going to try out best to at least take the third place, to bring to respectability to the sport back home”, White stated.

“This morning we did not play as well as we can play…. We only had four hours rest after the match against the British Virgin Islands which went into Sunday morning… Notwithstanding that we had to come here and play, but we did not execute as we ought to and we paid the price”, White contended.

The Dominican Republic plays the British Virgin Islands in Sunday morning‘s other match, which is merely of academic interest, as the former is already assured of a place in the final.