Costa Rica beat Nicaragua to finish third

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, July 20, 2014 - The Costa Ricans were made to work very hard to defeat Nicaragua 24-26, 25-22, 28-26, 25-18 and finish third in the NORCECA Women’s Volleyball Playoff Tournament Sunday at Sport & Physical Education Centre of the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.

The final placing was very disappointing for the Costa Ricans as they are the only country of the five involved in the round-robin tournament with World Championship experience and they were attempting to qualify for the third straight time.

However they were knocked out of contention after losing their first two matches against Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago and those two countries battled for the 24^th and final place in the World Championships in Italy, from September 23-October 12, in the second match of last night’s double header.

Costa Rican coach Horacio Bastit also lamented that fact that Nicaragua and Panama, who were not expected to make it this far, were each able to take a set from his team.

“I am not happy, we are playing at the same level or going down and other teams are improving their skills,” the Argentine said.

“Very proud of the team, they gave it all they had until the last point, but Costa knew how to close out each set,” stated Nicaragua’s coach Rene Quintana.

No player had scored over 20 points in the tournament, but that changed in this match as Costa Rican captain Angela Willis Lindo notched 21 points and Nicaraguan Elizabeth Heidy Trana Lugo scored a tournament-high 23.

A record eight players, four from each team, scored in double figures in the contested, which lasted 106 minutes.

Nicaragua had the advantage (60-52) in kills, but Costa Rica completely dominated in blocked shots (15-4).