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Costa Rica blocks Guatemala all the way

 

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, October 3, 2019.- Costa Rica blocked Guatemala with a huge 14-4 margin in their sweeping victory 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-22) on Thursday night at the eighteenth AFECAVOL U21 Men’s Central American Championship at FESAVOL Gymnasium in San Salvador, El Salvador.

 

Costa Rica left Guatemala with little to none options of recovery jumping to comfortable leads in all three sets. Costa Rica improved their record 2-1 while Guatemala dropped 2-2.

 

Besides their huge margin in blocks, Costa Rica also led 38-27 in attacks and held a slim 3-2 margin in aces. Costa Rica committed 17 errors and Guatemala finished with 19.

 

The winners balanced their scoring offence between middle blocker Reyman Alfaro with 13 points including 8 huge blocks, outside hitter Dowshel Mc Donald scored 11 points and opposite Deykel Smith added 10 points. Opposite player José Rodrigo Carrillo led Guatemala with 10 points all on kills.

 

On Friday Costa Rica (2-1) will face Honduras (1-3) and Guatemala has the day off.

 

Juan Diego Arrieta, Captain of Costa Rica: “Having lost to Nicaragua and not giving our best effort only motivated us to show what we can do. We blocked a lot and our aggressive kills were the key in being superior”.

 

Sergio Araya, Head Coach of Costa Rica: “The guys followed every instruction of using their strength and changing speed in their kills, in consequence we knocked Guatemala out of rhythm and they didn´t know whether to defend in the back row or go to make coverage. The blocking, attacking, everything worked out. These five points puts us in the fight and gives confidence to the group, we are coming from less to more”.

 

Reider Lucas, Head Coach of Guatemala: “It was a really bad game for us. Costa Rica knew how to prevail on the court, set the rhythm of the game and it’s evident in the result. We never figured out how to get on top, nor impose our game. Tomorrow we will try to mentally recover and try to motivate them and see if we can be among the medalists”.