Belize City, July 16, 2022.- Guatemala recovered from trailing 1-2 to win 3-2 (19-25, 25-20, 25-20, 19-25, 15-11) over Belize to achieve the gold medal, during the XIX Central American U21 Women’s Volleyball Championship.
Before a spectacular crowd at the Belize Civic Center, the locals were timid and unfocused in the first set, when Guatemala did a lot of damage with their services and blocking. However, from the second set Garet Bruce and Fatoumata Camara began to be protagonists, in addition to Kahia Gordon, to overcome the historic match for an entire country.
In the fourth set Guatemala controlled the strong Belizean attack, with the blocks of its central players, Ibarra and Mendizabal, in addition to the attack of the captain Naomi Monney in the important points.
And in the fifth and decisive game, Guatemala showed claw and heart, with a great defense and good blocking counteracting the changes in Belize looking to do damage with their great range in attack and they kept the set and the game, in addition to the medal of gold they haven’t earned since 2013.
María Santa Cruz scored 21 points for the winners, including six blocks, captain Naomi Monney with 15 points in important moments and Andrea Mendizabal with 12, also added 6 blocks. For Belize, Gareth Bruce with 20, Fatoumata Camara with 16 and Khaya Gordon with 12, with 5 blocks.
Guatemala was better in attack 50-49, in blocking 17-10 and serving 9-7, with 29 errors by Belize to 33 by the winners.
Honduras wins the bronze
Honduras, for its part, beat Nicaragua 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-18) to secure third place.
The Hondurans, last champions in the Under 20 tournament three years ago, were 2-2, while Nicaragua was in fourth place with 1-3.
Honduras was better in blocking 10-4 and dominated in serves 9-4, with 4 “aces” by Andrea Aceituno who was the top scorer with 20 points… Nicaragua was better in attack 38-30, with Gilmary Smith with 11 points , although they committed 26 errors for 14 of their opponents.
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