The national men’s volleyball team opened their campaign at the senior South American Volleyball Championship on Wednesday with a loss to the sixth-ranked team in the world, Argentina, in Maceio, Brazil.
Despite losing in straight sets 25-9, 25-9 and 25-13 the local men gave a good account of themselves, according to assistant head coach Ian Wills. In a brief comment, he told Stabroek Sports yesterday that he is proud of the boys and expects them to do better in the next game.
Speaking about plans for the next match against Colombia, Wills said: “We need to attack more through the middle, receive well, serve and block better.”
According to a match report sent by Wills, the Guyanese started off trading shots equally with the world superpower as the early scores were practically even in each set.
Competing at this level for the first time since the 1960s and 1970s, way before any of the players in the side were even born, the Guyanese men started off the game looking like seasoned campaigners, taking the first point from Argentina and managing to trade equal punches until the scores were about 5-all.
However, at that point, the Argentines saw a few chinks in the Guyanese armour and exploited their weakness in blocking and reception, thus gaining the upper hand.
The second set began the same as the first, as blocking and reception proved to be the downfall of the local players again.
Taking heart from sporadic shots by Creston Rodney who appeared to be the leading Guyanese attacker of the night and crafty substitutions by the coach, the local men managed to rally the support of the mostly Brazilian crowd as they fought to a similar scoreline as the first set.
In the third set, head coach Levi Nedd decided to make some changes to the starting line-up and opened with Jason Seelochan, who turned out to be a crowd favourite, instead of seasoned campaigner, Khemraj Singh.
The third set saw the local men again trading shots with Argentina but as before, their blocking and reception were no match for their more experienced counterparts.
Occasional brilliance in defence by Vance Harding and renewed life in the attacking through the setting of Seelochan saw the local men dig even deeper than the first two sets and rally to a more respectable scoreline.
Guyana plays Uruguay tomorrow at 3.15pm Guyana time in the final preliminary match of Group B.
