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GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala,
November 3, 2021. - Costa Rica remains unbeaten
at the XXI Men’s Central American Cup, with a
five-set victory 3-2 (25-14, 25-18, 23-25,
26-28, 15-11) over Nicaragua at Guatemala’s City
Dome.
Costa Rica has a 4-0 record and 18 points after
five days of competition; Nicaragua has 2-2 and
12 points.
In the first set, with a huge 19-10 margin,
Costa Rica lost its captain Richard Smith due to
a shoulder injury; still they edged Nicaragua
with their powerful blocking winning the first
and second sets. Nicaragua recovered from a five-point
deficit (17-22) to win the third and then
comeback from an intense fourth set winning two
match-points over Costa Rica. The Costa Rican
squad got back into their rhythm in the first
set to win the tie-break.
Costa Rica controlled the attacking with 67-56
and serves by 6-4 and Nicaragua the blocking
category with 11-9. Costa Rica finished with 25
unforced errors and Nicaragua with a total of
32.
Four players led Costa Rica’s attackers,
opposite Gilberth Solano scored a match-high of
25 points, outside hitter Ricky Vargas who came
off the bench for Richard Smith scored 14 points,
followed by outside hitter José Andrés Ortiz and
middle blocker Jason Brown with 13 and 11 points
respectively. Four players also led Nicaragua,
Jonny Zeledón and Tito Valdivia with 15 points
each; Valdivia entered in the second set; Byron
Hernández (12) and middle blocker Emilio Andrews
(11).
Nicaragua meets El Salvador on Thursday at
1:00pm, followed by Costa Rica vs. Belize ant
4:00pm.
Johan Morales, Head Coach of Costa Rica: “We had
Nicaragua in the third 22-15 and up by two sets
and we still couldn’t win; it was an emotional
hit and Nicaragua got motivated. We got into
difficulties because of our concentration
errors, but it was a good result. Obviously
Richard is a key piece, he’s the captain of the
team, but we have high quality in the team and
we proved it today”.
Osman Hernández, Head Coach of Nicaragua: “The
team was overconfident; we recovered up to the
third set. We have possibilities of reaching the
podium, that’s our goal and we must prepare for
tomorrow and Friday, the group has shown good
matches, we can close strong”. |
