Costa Rica to play for fifth place

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States, July 30, 2016. - Costa Rica will play for fifth place of the NORCECA Women’s U-2 Continental Championship after beating French St. Martin 3-0 (25-5, 25-14, 25-8) in Nova Southeastern University of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

Saturday’s placing match between Costa Rica and French St. Martin had no surprises, with the Central American squad leading with 6-0 margin in set one and 9-0 in set three.

Costa Rica outplayed the Caribbean representatives benefiting from 26 opponent errors while limiting theirs to 8 and with huge advantage in spikes (35-16) and serves (13-1).

Opposite Isla Johnson topped Costa Rica with 16 points, joined by middle blocker Mariana Rodriguez with 8 points and outside hitter Edya Espinosa with 7 points.

Costa Rica will play for fifth place against Mexico on Sunday.

Mariana Rodríguez said “this match presented less difficulty, it gave us a chance to practice things that we weren’t able to perform previously, we are glad. Against Mexico tomorrow, I believe if we concentrate enough, if we are confident and play it simple”.

Coach Andres Lopez of Costa Rica said “we used our U-18 players which is beneficial. Our opponent allowed us to play orderly. Tomorrow we will work hard to finish fifth against Mexico that is tough and we respect them a lot”.

Coach Jean-Luc Lezin of French St. Martin said “we lost a lot of serves, which killed us. The girls don’t’ control their nervousness. We have worked in the psychological part; they just need to put it in practice”.

 “Our team supports each other a lot; even if we lost we kept our union. I think we will do a good job tomorrow against Haiti, I hope to do better tomorrow and our goal is to win” said Lauriane Ternon.