homepage

 

 

Chile beats Costa Rica to move into U19 Pan Am Cup quarterfinals 

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, May 25, 2022. - Chile beat Costa Rica in an exciting four sets 3-1 (26-24, 25-21, 23-25, 26-24) to move into the Boys U19 Pan American Cup quarterfinal round in Guatemala.

Chile and Costa Rica battled strong to stay alive in their last pool-play performance; in the end Chile finished third in pool B with 1-2 record to face the loser between Guatemala and Puerto Rico in quarterfinals. Costa Rica with 0-3 will play for positions 5/8.

The South American squad led with a comfortable 14-8 margin in blocks and 6-3 in serves, while finishing with a one-point advantage (46-45) in attacks. Costa Rica committed fewer errors than Chile (34-38).

Outside hitter Ian Gei led Chile with 19 points on 16 kills, one block and 2 aces, followed by outside hitter Samuel Munita with 18 points on 14 kills, 3 blocks and one ace; opposite hitter Felipe Valenzuela also contributed with 12 points on 9 kills and 3 blocks.

Costa Rica’s outside hitter Stanley Grant scored a match-high of 22 points on 21 kills and one block; middle blocker Jeremy Venega added 13 points on 7 kills, 5 blocks and one ace, while team captain David Cordoba chipped in with 10 points all on kills.

Ivan Villarreal, Head Coach Chile: “This is the first category that competes internationally, so after not having the opportunity to play due to the pandemic, their development has been complicated; that’s why such an exciting game; they want to do things well. This is a competition and it’s not recreational. We are glad to sweep two losses and now we’ll wait for the quarter finals, we want to compete and enjoy playing after so long”.