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HERMOSILLO, Mexico, August 25, 2022.- Colombia
beat Nicaragua 3-0 (25-8, 25-12, 25-12) to top
pool B and move directly into semifinals of the
Women’s Pan American Cup at the Sonora Arena in
Hermosillo.
Colombia with a solid 4-0 record in the
preliminary round earned their semifinal spot of
the competition. Nicaragua, fifth place of pool
B will play classification matches for positions
7 to 10 starting with Costa Rica on Friday.
The South Americans controlled the Central
Americans in every skill of the game, attacks
(37-22), blocks (14-2) and serves (12-0). In
errors, Colombia committed 8 and Nicaragua 12.
Middle blocker Melissa Rangel scored 12 points
as Colombia’s top scorer, from 9 kills, 2 blocks
and one ace, joined by outside hitter Ana Karina
Olaya with 11 points from 7 kills and a
match-high of 4 aces; outside hitter Laura
Grajales added 9 points.
Opposite hitter Hellen Traña collected 11 points
for Nicaragua, on 10 kills and one block.
Melissa Rangel, top scorer of Colombia:
“Our main goal was to qualify to the semifinals,
today the coach made some line-up variations
because it was a quieter match than the previous
ones, seeking that everyone should fulfill their
job and always have the score in our favor.
Colombia’s firm pace is because of our work,
preparing for Worlds and having clear goals. We
have a strengthened team, we showed it on the
court, and we will play hard whoever we play
against”.
Swan Mendoza, outside hitter of Nicaragua:
“We came into the competition aware of facing
the best teams of America, strong teams and with
much height than ours, with the idea of
performing our work and preparing for future
competitions. Tomorrow, we face Costa Rica, we
already have our strategy and I believe that our
previous matches served us to prepare for a
Central American derby, we will follow the
instructions of our coach”. |
