Guatemala wins opener over El Salvador

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, August 7, 2014.- Guatemala defeated El Salvador 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-23) in the opener of the Women’s U-23 AFECAVOL Central American Championship at Jorge A. Galeano Gymnasium in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The straight set victory of Guatemala wasn’t an easy one, with El Salvador pushing stronger with strong serves in the third set.

Guatemala held advantage in kills by 36-22 and in blocks by 4-3. Both teams were equally effective in serves with 8 points each.

The top scorer for Guatemala was middle blocker Ada Villalobos with 12 points, including 8 kills and 3 aces. Middle Blocker Aury Alvarez and opposite Lourdes Cruz contributed in the winning cause with 9 and 8 points respectively. Outside hitter Maria Jose Galeano of El Salvador was their best scorer with 13 points.

“Guatemala has a winner’s mentality and with El Salvador pushing harder in the third set, this made the difference to turn things in our favor. The team is working very well together with the young players who have the abilities to be part of this group and looking into the senior category” indicated Guatemala’s captain Maria Alvarez.

Gabriela Soriano, captain of El Salvador said “we managed to take control in the third set because of our hard serves; we weren’t able to sustain it further because of our lack of experience”.

Guatemala’s coach David Aldana was satisfied with the straight set victory and obtaining five points “our expectations of El Salvador were their strong serves and they knew how to push in a zone where we had difficulties, I agree with their captain that they need more experience, but both teams have improved over the years, especially in the height of our players and our future looks good. We played fast and hopefully for tomorrow’s match against Costa Rica, this will work better because they are much taller”.

Nery Henriquez, coach of El Salvador said that the team needs to play more to improve “eight of my players have no international exposure and need to develop. Our tactical mentality is also developing and the players will grow with this competition. Guatemala’s game was very fast and this made it harder for us to control”.