Costa Rica wins quarterfinal spot to Honduras

AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico, June 20, 2018.- Costa Rica won a quarterfinal spot at the NORCECA Women’s U20 Continental Championship defeating Honduras 3-0 25-22, 25-16, 25-22) in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

Costa Rica finishes third place in pool B with 1-2 record to move into quarterfinals to face either Cuba or Puerto Rico. Honduras will play classification matches for 5^th to 8^th place.

Costa Rica and Honduras were tied on numerous occasions but Costa Rica always managed to seal each set with consistency, despite Honduras spirited players.

It was a neck to neck Central American battle with Honduras huge margin of 12-4 in blocking that wasn’t enough to stop Costa Rica’s 39-26 lead in kills and 6-0 in aces. Costa Rica committed 22 unforced errors and Honduras a total of 26.

Edya Espinoza led Costa Rica with 17 points, on 15 kills and 2 aces, followed by Santa Volkovs with 10 points. Nathaly Perez and Josselyn Waterhouse joined forces for Honduras, scoring 10 points apiece and Thrisha Yearwood added 9 points.

Edya Espinoza captain of Costa Rica: “I believe we won because we were settled, we always play calm. Honduras played with good energy and great attitude because they wanted to beat us, we are long rivals but we always finish on top. Costa Rica was consistent and we never lost our head”.

Andrés López head coach of Costa Rica: “This was our first goal, advance into the next round winning only one game from the three in pool-play, so we reached our first objective, now we need to set new goals in the next round, it will be harder because our opponents are stronger and more demanding, but it is all a learning process. We are happy to have beaten our zonal opponent, it’s always good. We balance our offense between sever players; Honduras doesn’t, so our strategy was to control Nathaly Pérez. My team’s energy was low; they are tired from yesterday’s late match. Today we will study our next opponent to determine our plan”.

Osiel Vásquez head coach of Honduras: “We were mentally prepared to beat Costa Rica, my girls new what to do and they didn’t execute. They did not follow our game plan, they do not respond. Our serves should have been stronger, my girls were supposed to attack Costa Rica’s short players, we didn’t do it”.