Canada returns to the semifinals by beating Honduras

Tegucigalpa, Honduras. August 30, 2018. Canada returned to the NORCECA continental events after 12 years and went into the semifinals by going 3-0 (25-15, 25-16, 25-16) to Honduras in the NORCECA U18 Women's Continental Championship.

Canada has a bronze medal won in 1998 and had 12 years of not participating in tournaments of this category, returning through the front door and now face Cuba, first place in group B.

Anna Smrek and Katarina Pantovic were the best scorers in Canada with 12 points, for Honduras Dazly Durán was six.

The Canadian team was superior in attack 37-11, in blocking 3-2 and in service 11-4, but they gave 30 points for errors by 24 of the Honduran.

Hannah Duchesneau, captain of Canada: "It is an honor, these excited and happy, I am proud to know that after so many years we are in the semifinals, that we are the generation that returned to this stage".

"We are encouraged to be in the final, the game with Honduras helped us to stand up, wake up, because we know we can not leave them alone, we must be attentive".

Dale Melnick, coach of Canada: "We felt very well, very happy, this was our main goal to be in the semifinal after so many years. I feel very good because the team played before a large audience, and a good team, because Honduras played very well. Our athletes played very calm, very calm and enjoyed the game. "

"We knew that Honduras would not be easy, we always respect the teams and they are battling, small, but they fight for every ball."

Dazly Durán, from Honduras: "It was a very tough match, just like yesterday, but we were better in some aspects against the United States. I think we've been confident about the game we had yesterday and we knew we could give Canada more fight. We have faced two super strong teams and if we play them well the other games we should win them. "

Osiel Vasquez, coach of Honduras: "The girls fought but they were not at the level of yesterday (against the United States), we prepared them to do a better role since Canada was more accessible, not easy, but we could do things better. The serve was not good, more mistakes were made. We are very happy with the girls, they played well and we will try to win the two remaining matches to place us in fifth place ".