Preview: NORCECA Guatemala
Guatemala hosts the next stop on the NORCECA tour this weekend.
This weekend the NORCECA circuit continues with the next stop, Guatemala. Running from April 8th - 10th, 18 men's and 17 women's teams from 15 countries will play for a chance at NORCECA gold. Cuba's Karel Pena and Sergio Gonzalez are the defending male champions. This year, Pena will be defending his title with new partner Javier Jimenez. This duo didn't play at NORCECA Grand Cayman, so we will be seeing them for the first time this weekend.
On the women's side, the defending champions are the Canadian pair of Julie Rodrigue and Katherine Zakrzewski. While we saw Rodrigue and new partner Kacie MacTavish two weeks ago in Cayman, they will not be playing this weekend in Guatemala. The two Canadian women's teams in Guatemala this weekend are Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney as well as Kristina Valjas and Jamie Broder. Valjas is actually partnered with Caleigh Whitaker for the 2011 season, however Whitaker is finishing up exams so will not be able to make Guatemala. We spoke with team Bansley/Maloney on our most recent episode of The Kill on Two Volleyball Podcast. Here is the link to that episode.
Guatemala marks the first tournament for team Hatch / Schachter. We spoke with Maverick Hatch about his 2011 beach season with new partner Sam Schachter on The Kill on Two Volleyball Podcast. If you haven't checked out that episode, subscribe in iTunes (for free) and give it a listen. He has also updated his blog and even included a little video from Guatemala. Here is a list of our Canadian pairs that will be competing in Guatemala.
Canadian Men's Teams
- Christian Redmann and Ben Saxton
- Maverick Hatch and Sam Schachter
Canadian Women's Teams
- Heather Bansley and Liz Maloney
- Jamie Broder and Kristina Valjas
Live Stream Video and Brackets
The Guatemala Volleyball website is currently still under construction with most of the content still being held with latin placeholder text. The beach volleyball page itself causes a server error when clicked. There hasn't been any mention of live streaming on their site or the NORCECA website, so as of right now things are looking kind of grim.
Once we know the scores of the matches, we will post them here. We'll also keep our eyes out for a live stream of the games. Check back to Kill on Two for updates.
Have any predictions for NORCECA Guatemala? Do you have a link to a livestream from the event? Want to just say hi? Speak your mind in the comments.