CHIRIQUÍ, Panama, September 18, 2025.- Belize pulled off a surprising victory over Guatemala 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-15, 25-20) to close Pool A of the VII AFECAVOL Central American U23 Championship, a result that determined the semifinal matchups.
All three teams in Pool A finished with a 1-1 win-loss record, but the semifinal spots went to Panama, who topped the pool with six points, followed by Guatemala (5) in second place and Belize (4) in third.
In the semifinal round, Guatemala will face Costa Rica while Panama will take on Nicaragua.
Belize will meet Honduras in the classification round; the loser of that match will finish in seventh place, while the winner will advance to the fifth-place match against El Salvador, who is waiting for an opponent after finishing third in Pool B.
Against Guatemala, Belize played inspired volleyball, using their powerful blocking to neutralize their opponent.
Belize dominated in blocking points 14-2, attacks 55-46, and serves 7-3, although they gave away more points on unforced errors 31-20.
Kaelen Ingram led Belize’s offense with 25 points, followed by Eleazar Mejía with 23. For Guatemala, Jerry Durán topped the scoresheet with 12 points, supported by José Pérez with 10.
After the match, Belize’s captain Kaelen Ingram said: “We played like a family. We went into the match against Guatemala knowing that if we wanted to win, we had to help each other out. For our next match, we will give our best. The team knows that in every match we must go out and fight.”
Meanwhile, Guatemala’s captain Josué González commented: “All our matches against Belize are always tough. The truth is we didn’t play our game and that hurt us. We tried to fight back after falling behind, but we couldn’t get the result we wanted.”
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