Venezuela clinch fifth place in South American Battle at CACG

CORDOBA, Mexico, November 20, 2014 - Venezuela clinched the fifth place at XXII the Central American and Caribbean Games after beating Colombia in five sets (36-34, 21-25, 25-15, 20-25,15-13).

Margarita Martinez guided the Colombian attack with a total of 22 points, to be the top scorer of the match, followed by Amanda Coneo with 20 and Yeisi Soto with 17.

Venezuela had more variations on their attack by distributing it among Roslandy Acosta (19), María José Pérez (18), Desiree Glod (16) and Sharlin Bidean (13).

Venezuela had an advantage of 8-7 in blocks and 5-4 serving. Colombia gave up 33 points by error, and Venezuela surrendered 31.

The first set was the longest one at Women’s Volleyball Tournament. Venezuela and Colombia scored 70 combined points as the set finished 36-34 in favor of the Venezuelan team. The set also lasted 36 minutes. The match had a total combination of 229 points and lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes.

“Despite this was a match for the fifth place. It was very tough. We fought hard despite losing it. It was a first set with a lot of points and that gave us some confidence. We have a very young team and we qualified this year to a Grand Prix for 2015,” said Alejandra Marin, captain of Colombia.

“We got over the sadness of losing against them in the first round. There is always a sport but friendly rivalry. We expected to aspire for more, but I’m glad In the end”, said Desiree Glod, captain of Venezuela.

“We could not get into the medals, but this was such a great battle. The players gave it all on the court. We increased our level one step at a time, but were short of time. We expect to gain more exposure,” Sergio Rivero, coach of Venezuela indicated.

“Congratulations to Venezuela, they played hard. It is not easy. They came for more, but their pool was very tough. Afterall, I’m glad for my team with a lot of young players, that also had very good results on the U22 championship and prepare for the South American Championships as well as the Grand Prix,” Mauro Marasciulo, coach of Colombia, commented.