Panama claims first win beating Honduras
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, October 2,
2019.- Panama
claimed their first win beating Honduras 3-0 (25-21, 25-20,
25-23) at the eighteenth AFECAVOL U21 Central American
Championship at FESAVOL Gymnasium in San Salvador, El
Salvador.
Panama struggled in set three to overcome Honduras blockers
but kept their focus on pocketing their first victory.
Panama won five points in ranking to even their win-loss
record 1-1 while Honduras remains win-less with 0-3 record.
Panama´s hitters carried out a strong performance dominating
Honduras by overwhelming 38-19 margin; still Honduras
blockers managed a 12-9 advantage. Panama aced 5 scoring
points and committed fewer errors (23-33) than Honduras.
Outside hitter Ivan Ortega led Panama’s attackers with 15
points including 14 kills and captain José Vasquez chipped
in with 12 points including 9 kills and 2 blocks. Luis
Orellana was the only player of Honduras that scored
double-digits with a total of 11 points.
Panama’s (1-1) will face Belize (0-3) on day three of
competition and Honduras (0-3) will face defending champion
Nicaragua (2-0).
Javier Polo, Head Coach of Panama: “In today’s practice we
focused on defense because it wasn’t well adjusted in our
first performance and we also made some position changes. We
struggled during the third set because our setter’s mind
changed; he wanted to use another game system that we
haven’t practice”.
Osiel Vasquez, Head Coach of Honduras: “In this age-group we
must score between 10 or 12 points performing the complex
one (relation passing-attacking) and statistically we are
below that, we can’t win. Our blocking and defense are
working very well. The only thing left for us is winning,
but we must be strong in attacking and we will continue to
practice to finish in the top four of the tournament”.