Nicaragua surprises Dominican Republic

HAVANA, Cuba, June 25, 2016 – Nicaragua team entered the court again with joy and fighting spirit to overcome Dominican Republic 3-1 (20-25, 25-13, 25-21, 25-23) for their first victory in A Pool at the NORCECA Boys U-19 Championship.

The Central Americans attacked better (53-42) and were also superior in the service (4-1) while their opponents were better in blocking (4-6) with the two sides similars in unforced errors (33-34).

Byron Hernández (26) was the match best scorer followed by Jonny Zeledón (22). On the Caribbean side, only Bayron Valdéz (23) reached the double-digits.

Osma Hernández, the Central American coach, recognized that his boys’ smart playing style weakened the performance of the best Dominican players Valdéz and Fuhit Evens.

“We bothered both of them and then we centred on counterattack. However we made many errors such as lack of coordination, but in general they did a good work where we were also able to have a better service today. There’s no small enemy here. So we hope to do battle tomorrow when meeting the Costa Ricans”, expressed.

Zeledón, the captain, said “it helped us a lot our spirit and being able to identify our rivals’ weaknesses to put up a fight point by point. We did as much as possible and we finally had better results when we could make up the initial point difference”.

Vicente Paniagua, Dominican coach, commented “we had a bad match after an intense one last night when we defeated Costa Rica. In addition, my two main players did not play equally well. Moreover, we should recognize the Nicaraguans are the Central American champions at this age category”.

Captain Valdéz stated: “I do not think we are exhausted, but we lost concentration. As a conclusion, we did not do what we actually should have”.