Costa Rica beats Suriname at U21 tournament

Toronto, Canada. June 29, 2024:   Costa Rica defeated Suriname in the first classification match of the day at the Women’s NORCECA U21 Continental Championship at the Pan Am Sports Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

Costa Rica will get the opportunity to play for positions 5 and 6 on Sunday.

The score was 3-0 (25-18, 25-11, 25-15) with Costa Rica leading in attack points 38-22, block points 5-3 and ace serves 9-2.  Costa Rica also made the most of Suriname’s errors by 23-17 points.

Amanda Campos of Costa Rica led scoring with 9 attacks, 3 blocks and an ace. Mariela Navarro and Amelie Jenkins Cruz each had 10 points for the winning side.

Avaira Sengwai of Suriname was that team’s lead scorer with 9 total points.

Costa Rican player Manuela Alcalá Martinez said: “We stuck together as a team and tried to follow our coaches’ instructions. We tried to keep our movement up and not let ourselves down. … We came together really well as a team, we managed to communicate well. We’re really happy with how we played and we’re really excited for the game tomorrow.” 

Head coach of Costa Rica, Kareem Richards, said: “Suriname came out strong. We told the girls we needed to reduce the unforced errors that we were committing. The girls were very tactical with their serves and that’s what gave us a little advantage over the game. As I said last time, these are awesome girls, once they’re on the court they give their everything.”