HAVANA, Cuba, June 9, 2023.- Dominican Republic took the best part after sweeping Guatemala 25-21, 25-22 and 25-23 in a classification match for the fifth place of the U21 Men’s Norceca Pan American Cup at Coliseo Deportivo.
Dominicans were superior in attacks (51-39) and serves (6-3) and tied in blocks (3-3). Both teams committed 18 unforced errors.
Outside hitter Elixander Gómez led all scorers with 16 points. Also with double digits were outside hitter Ronny Molina (13) and opposite hitter Adrián Figueroa (12). On the opposing side, outside hitter Yeferson Zavala scored 14 for his team.
Dominican coach Dante Mañón said “when my team got on court they were happy and I told them that was good, today you’re going to win and fortunately the blocks worked well, but in attacks we are at the same level as Guatemala”.
Team captain Ronny Molina was happy to express “it was because we came to win this game and we did thanks to a team effort, despite being overconfident once again and the opponent took advantage in the third set, but we came back. Tomorrow, against Nicaragua or Haiti, we can’t be too confident”.
Luis Castañeda, coach of the Central American team said “we always try to do things well, it wasn’t so today, we lacked in receiving and deciding in the last balls, the athletes lack experience, but we are going to continue to fight, we have one match left and I hope they will give their all and make it”.
Luis Mendizabal, Guatemalan middle blocker sadly said “we could have won the match, but we had to perform harder, and we didn’t. We had technical issues, and it was difficult to work. On Saturday we must come out for the win to not finish at the bottom”.
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