Guatemala beats Honduras in tough battle

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, August 10, 2016.- Guatemala beat Honduras 3-1 (25-19, 25-20, 21-25, 26-24) in a tough battled match on day five of the AFECAVOL Women’s U23 Central American Championship at Gimnasio 7 de Diciembre Alfonso Gordillo.

The home team remains unbeaten 4-0 with a total of 19 points while Honduras has 2-2 win-loss record and 11 points.

Guatemala and Honduras battled hard with both performing strong. Both teams played quick and depending on their offense. Guatemala’s approach towards Honduras was hitting on the sides, while Honduras did their thing in the middle and sides. Guatemala missed numerous serves but still prevailed over Honduras in sets one and two. Honduras blocked Guatemala starting set three, jumping to 8-2 lead. Honduras was organized and moved ahead for a seven point lead 16-9 canceling Guatemala’s offense all the way to pocket set three. Again, both teams were involved offensively and defensively in thriller fourth set as the score was tied several times, finally Guatemala won after missing one match set.

The winners prevailed 51-43 in spiking, 6-5 in blocking and committed 35 errors; while the losing side held advantage in serves with 5-4 margin and committed 36 errors.

Opposite Maria Garcia led Guatemala’s scorers with 22 points, joined by outside hitter Estefanie Bethancourt with 18 points. Opposite Cecille Johnson of Honduras was the best scorer with 24 points.

On Thursday, Panama (0-5) will face Belize (1-3), Costa Rica (4-0) plays against Honduras (2-2) and Guatemala (4-0) meets Nicaragua (1-3).

Estefanie Bethancourt of Guatemala expressed “Honduras is very strong y that’s why we had difficulties, we lost control. In previous matches, our serves were risky and tough, but today we failed a lot in serving. We did some variations in the fourth set to finish with the victory”.

Lourdes Morales captain of Honduras said it was a really good match “we could have won the fourth set, we battled up to the end. We set the pace in the set that we won, limiting our errors”.

Coach William Fernandez of Guatemala said that both teams gave a great performance “it was an excellent match. Several players knew each other from the U-20 category and it had the same intensity. Guatemala narrowed Honduras’ advantage in the third se so we knew how to close strong”.

“Definitely a great match, I wanted Honduras to show that they are capable of playing at a higher level and we did; I consider this our best match so far. We knew facing the home team would generate tension, my players failed a lot allowing Guatemala to score on our mistakes instead of winning them on their own” expressed coach Marcos Tejeda of Honduras.