Junior volleyball team competes at Central American Championship

Other Belizean athletes are also playing away from home. The Belize Junior Volleyball Team competed in the Central American Junior Championship games in Nicaragua. The team started out with a match against the host country on Friday; they led the game in the first two sets but eventually lost to Nicaragua. Then on Saturday, Belize played the defending champions, Guatemala. Belize won the second set in the game, which is also the only set that Guatemala has lost in the entire tournament. While that’s commendable, it wasn’t enough for the local boys to win the game. The tournament continued on Monday when Belize played Costa Rica and again came up short, losing all five sets in the match.  Today, the team went up against Honduras; the boys played well but still could not secure a win in the junior tournament. But the tide turned this afternoon when they took on El Salvador in the final match of the tournament. The game got off to a slow start for team Belize in the first two sets, but they came back to win the next three. In a release this afternoon, the Belize Volleyball Association, attributed the losses to the team’s lack of experience, but said that coaches from the other countries were impressed with their level of play. Jaleel and Denver Lino have been the star players for team Belize, which returns home on Wednesday.