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GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, November 2, 2021.-
Costa Rica controlled El Salvador 3-0 (25-21,
25-23, 25-14) on day four of the XXI Men’s
Central American Cup being held at Guatemala´s
City Dome.
After a comfortable first set, Costa Rica
recovered from a four-point deficit (10-14) to
snatch a competitive second set to El Salvador.
Costa Rica closed the third set with strength
and total control for a 3-0 win-loss record; El
Salvador stands with 3-2.
Costa Rica outscored 49-36 in attacks and 9-3 in
blocking points; both teams scored one ace and
El Salvador committed fewer errors (16-18).
With 19 points, opposite hitter Gilberto Solano
of Costa Rica led all scorers; middle blocker
Jason Brown added 12 points for Costa Rica.
Outside hitter Franklin Flores led El Salvador
with 15 points, joined by captain Rodrigo Chávez
with 12 points.
Costa Rica will face Nicaragua at 4:00pm on
Wednesday and El Salvador has the day off.
Richard Smith, captain of Costa Rica:
“The team is really united since we started to
train; we are focused on supporting and helping
each other when we fail. Coming from behind in
the second set, we were a bit anxious, but we
slowed down, we relaxed and focused on the
little things for a positive outcome in the
second set”.
Johan Morales, Head coach of Costa Rica:
“El Salvador is a great team, they’ve showed
that they are warriors; it was expected that in
the second set they were coming out stronger and
we had to calm down to come from behind five
points; we improved in receiving and our
blocking was crucial with the double change
(Kevin and Andres). El Salvador was down
psychologically in the third set and on the
contrary for us, we were tougher”.
Franklin Flores, top scorer of El Salvador:
“Yesterday we had an intense match against
Guatemala and today Costa Rica had a change of
rhythm, we weren’t able to solve and sadly our
attitude was down. Now we must think about
Nicaragua to fight for a medal”.
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