NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tournament 2010, First day of Men’s action
The North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) beach volleyball circuit is headed into its seventh episode this season. Another fabulous 4-day beach volleyball activity just rounded-off at the Olympic Training Centre sand courts in Chula Vista, California. United States competed with five women’s and four men’s teams in the tournament. The tournament opened on Friday, 27th August 2010 and concluded on Sunday, 29th August 2010.
The current tournament is a part of the NORCECA campaign where teams from Central America and Caribbean come together. In addition to the American teams, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Puerto Rico’s teams graced the beach courts of California.
Mexico
On the opening day of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit event, the men’s team from Mexico made its mark and claimed the early triumph. The pair, Aldo Miramontes and Juan Virgen remained successful with a score of 3-0 in the 1st pool play of the tournament. They played their matches with Guatemala, Puerto Rico and United States, respectively.
The first match was totally influenced by the Mexican pair when they whiplashed Guatemala’s struggling players, Rodrigo Gonzalez Flores, and, Erick Rolando Garrido Ruiz, in two straight sets. Aldo/Juan restricted their opponents to a single digit score and claimed victory with a heavy margin of points. They posted 21-6 and 21-4 win over Guatemala. The second contest brought the team from Puerto Rico, which was evenly justified from Mexicans. The Puerto Rican Roberto Rodriguez and Orlando Irizarry fought well and tried to create a little buzz in the game but ultimately lost to the Mexicans in three sets (21-19, 21-23 and 15-11). The host-nation U.S. came forward in the third match with Andy McGuire and Seth Burnham of USA-2 team. Mexican Aldo/Juan defeated them in two straight sets (21-15 and 21-15). The Mexicans covered the first stage by winning all their pool play matches.
USA-4
Similarly, the USA-4 team which consisted of Avery Drost and Mike Maghy, finished the first day with 2-0. USA-4 contested against two teams from Costa Rica and successfully put them in the blue region. Costa Rica-1 opened the first pool play and received a defeat of 1-2 in the game while Costa Rica-2 was next in line. USA-4 posted 2-0 (21-13 and 21-13) win over CR-2 team.
USA-1
USA-1 played its three matches on Friday and finished 2-1. They achieved victory in the first two matches as they defeated EI Salvador in two sets (21-19 and 21-19) and Costa Rica-1 in the second match. Somehow, Kevin Beukema/Kevin Gregan of USA-1 failed in the third match against second team from Costa Rica. The American pair received a 1-2 defeat from Costa Rica-2.
Low ranked teams
The rest of the men’s teams moved along with relatively low points. The match between Costa Rica-1 and EI Salvador grabbed attention, though. Both teams had somewhat equal potential and energy. The first set started and the Costa Rican pair was dominated by their opposition. Salvador claimed the first set victory with a margin of two points. Anyhow, Costa Rica returned the same results in the second set and took revenge by posting a 21-19 victory over Salvador. The third decisive set started with a strong attack from both sides. Finally Salvador managed to steal some points from Costa Rica and clinched their only victory in the first round of the tournament. Likewise, Puerto Rico and USA-2 won one match each. Guatemala was the only team which remained un-successful in the first pool-play matches.
The Mexicans topped the standing at the end of first phase of tournament while USA-4 followed them in second place. Both these team remained unbeaten in the first pool play matches of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tournament.
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