US women duo makes good progress on day 1 of Beach Volleyball Tournament in Guatemala
The second leg of NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit started off in Guatemala on Friday, March 30.
The tournament was opened with the pool-play matches, where American team of Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik demonstrated a wonderful feat in the women’s competition. US pair played one match and clinched success in straight sets.
The pairing of Kropp and Pavlik was challenged by Nicaragua’s Elia Torres and Swan Mendoza in the tournament opener. The match lasted for 33 minutes and finally American team bagged 2-0 (21-14, 21-14) victory over NCA squad.
The US players opened the match with powerful serves and delivered quite many aces to put pressure on the opposite side. They picked up an early lead and further stretched the gap of points.
Meanwhile, the Nicaraguan pair struggled to catch up with the US opponent but failed to match its performance with strong rivals. As a result, the first set slipped from their hands and US team went on front with 1-0. It was a comfortable win for Kropp/Pavlik
and it provided them a lot of positive energy to beat NCA.
The second set unfolded the same story. American side proved to be better in every aspect of the game and did not allow Nicaragua to come up. Torres hit some nice shots in the second set but she could not carry the momentum going for long.
Kropp and Pavlik put up a combined effort and took control of the operations. With better combination of attack and defence, the American team secured second set. The interesting fact was that both sets ended with identical score of 21-14.
The 2012 Guatemala Beach Volleyball Tournament covered its length from March 30 to April 1. The tournament kicked off with a total of 13 women’s teams, which included the American pairing of Jenny Kropp and Whitney Pavlik.
Teams were initially divided into three pools: Pool A, Pool B, and Pool C. The US duo was placed in Pool A alongside teams from Nicaragua and hosts Guatemala. The home team was equipped with emotional support of local fans and had obvious advantage of playing
at familiar beach but nothing could work in their favour in the pool-play match. The Guatemalan ladies received a devastating 0-2 defeat from the visiting duo from Nicaragua.
The Caribbean state Guatemala has great history of hosting the NORCECA Beach Circuit competition. Previously, Guatemala successfully played host to five of the NORCECA Tournament in last five years. This is the consecutive sixth year that the North & Central
America and Caribbean Federation (NORCECA) honoured Guatemala to set up the field of play for this influential event.
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