SANTIAGO, Dominican Republic, August 24, 2005.- Guatemala started on the right track its quest for a berth at the 2006 FIVB Women’s World Championships taking a four-set victory over Jamaica in the Norceca–E Qualification Tournament. The score was 25-16, 21-25, 25-20, 25-7.

Maria Orellana led Guatemala with 18 points while Ana Ramirez had 16 and Samantha Arias 11. For Jamaica Cheryl Daley scored 9 and Paula Porter and Crawford each had 8.

Guatemala won the first set with good offensive actions by Ramirez and Aneliesse Burmester combined with Jamaica’s continued reception problems, but Jamaica prevailed in the second frame with improved blocking and strong spikes by Georgette Crawford. Ramirez led the attack in a third set dominated by Guatemala with margins of 8-3 and 16-10 at the technical time-outs. The serves of Orellana gave Guatemala a comfortable early lead in the fourth set and the rest was history.

Oneal Ebanks, assistant coach of Jamaica: "We do not have much international experience and it showed today, even our girls made the effort, but we lacked fighting spirit."

Tracyan Price, captain of Jamaica: "We have our heart in this match and expected another outcome. It is a disappointing loss but we are going to think about it and hope for a recovery."

David Aldana, coach of Guatemala: "We took a great step and I am very grateful of my players. It was a great effort and the important was the way we recovered of a bad second set."

Maria Orellana, captain of Guatemala: "It is the first time we have seen Jamaica playing. We did not play at 100 percent but is a match that give us confidence to keep fighting."