Costa Rica sweeps Belize 3-0 to start Central American U19

 

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, October 29, 2019 - Costa Rica beat Belize 3-0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-8) in the first game of day one of the XIII Central American Volleyball Championship U19.

 

Dowshel Smith scored 16 points, 15 of them by attacks, to lead Costa Rica to its first victory, while Harold Rodriguez was left with seven units. For Belize, Captain Kaelen Ingram was the top scorer with 7 points.

 

Costa Rica dominated 33-17 in attacks, 5-1 in blocks and 7-2 in services, while taking advantage of 30 Belizean mistakes to 13 committed.

 

Captain of Costa Rica: “Belize is a good team, we entered strong and didn’t get over confidents, I think it was a good match. A main factor is that we are a new process, we have a few months working together and this is something new, it is not like playing in our country, but this game helps us to gain confidence, I think we did well to be the first time we play outside. ”

 

Alberto Blanco, Coach of Costa Rica: “I am very satisfied, at first we believed that Belize would not be so easy, but it was that we did well and they gave us some advantage, they were more affected by the first game. In our practice today before the game we trained a lot the service that was good today, the idea was to play safe, not to risk the serve, more effectiveness than power. There is always disbelief about what is coming, but with a victory there is more confidence, although players should not fall into triumphalism. ”

 

Kaelen Ingram, captain of Belize: "Today was a good game, we have a lot of respect for Costa Rica and the concentration made a difference today, I think we lacked confidence."

 

Albert Humes, coach of Belize: “Costa Rica is always difficult, it is number one in the ranking, but the positive of that is that today we start a process trying to play good volleyball, it is a good test, what we need to improve. We need to improve the mental part, the lack of concentration and we hope to improve gradually in the tournament”.

 

On Wednesday 30, Belize will face Honduras at 3:00 p.m., while Costa Rica plays against Guatemala at 5:00 p.m.