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Colombia won to resilient Costa Rica

 

CHINCHA, Peru, September 9, 2014.- Colombia finished the preliminary round with victory over Costa Rica 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-18), their second win in Group B at the II Women’s U-23 Pan-American Cup at Mauro Mina Coliseum in the city of Chincha.

 

The Central American surprised in the two first sets with strong resistance, but their opponents reacted at the end of each set without seizing their initiative mostly in the third set where they showed their real superiority, with advantage in kills (49-32) and serves (7-4), while in blocking they finished even (4-4).

 

The top scorer was Maria Martínez (18), followed by Yeisy Soto (13), Amanda Coneo (11) and Diana Arrechea (10), Colombian players with double figures, while Evelyn Sibaja (11) and Mijal Hines (10) from the defeated said.

 

Brazilian Mauro Marasciulo, head coach of the South Americans, spoke after wasting so much energy from the previous match to defeat Dominican Republic they knew it wasn’t going to be an easy task.

 

“I told my players that they need to play hard to defeat Costa Rica, but it’s not easy to charge energies so fast after a match like yesterday, they were tired but they controlled the match”.

 

Captain setter Maria A. Marin, stated “we started too relaxed, we thought it would be an easy game, but as the match developed things complicated, but we were able to counterattack and finish strong the third set, giving our junior players a chance to play as they want to make the cut for the world championship”.

 

Argentinian Horacio Bastit, head coach for Costa Rica, said “it’s painful a third consecutive loss but I am satisfied with my players performance; Colombia is at another level and today it was our best match, it’s a shame not to have won the first two sets, it’s our inexperience and they definitely need to play more, but I’m happy”

 

Opposite player Mijal Hines, captain of the Central American squad said to be sure that this was their best “we really played with energy and that made the difference from the past two days”.