Costa Rica Beats Chile to Play for

Fifth at Junior Pan Am Games

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, August 14, 2025.- Costa Rica defeated Chile 3-1 (25-23, 28-26, 21-25, 25-21) in the women’s volleyball tournament of the II Junior Pan American Games Asunción 2025, at the COP Arena, and will play for fifth place against the winner of the match between Paraguay and Cuba.

The tightly contested first set went Costa Rica’s way in 27 minutes, with María del Sol Venegas and Jocelyn Moraga leading the offense. In the second set, the Central Americans quickly jumped to a 14-8 lead, but Chile fought back to force a dramatic ending, which Costa Rica finally closed out with two consecutive kills from Ivanny Blackwood, taking the set to overtime.

The South Americans, led by Florencia Giglio and Savka Rendic, responded in the third set to close the gap and force a fourth. In that decisive set, Javiera Núñez denied Costa Rica’s first match point with a kill, followed by a long rally that ended with a reception error from Costa Rica. However, Blackwood reappeared with a spike off the block to seal the victory.

Costa Rica capitalized on 30 Chilean unforced errors compared to their own 17 and held a slight edge in blocking (7-6). Chile led in attacks (65-58) and service points (7-4).

María del Sol Venegas and Jocelyn Moraga topped Costa Rica’s offense with 14 points each, while Blackwood contributed 12. For Chile, team captain Florencia Giglio was the match’s top scorer with 29 points, followed by opposite hitter Javiera Núñez with 16 and outside hitter Savka Rendic with 11.

Ivanny Blackwood highlighted the team’s motivation: “We came in giving it our all from the start. We were focused on the idea that we could beat Chile; we are almost at the same level, but after two losses, we were motivated to finish in the best possible position in the tournament. In the second set, I feel we got overconfident and lost our lead, it was hard to recover, but thankfully we took the set.”