Costa Rica wins with ups and downs against Nicaragua

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, August 10, 2014. - Costa Rica prevailed over Nicaragua 3-0 (25-21, 25-9, 25-15) at the II Women’s U-23 AFECAVOL Central American Championship in Jorge A. Galeano Gymnasium in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Costa Rica with ups and downs, from a slow start to a solid finish, defeated Nicaragua whose efforts came short. The match had long disputed rallies in the first set while in the second Costa Rica’s performance was demolishing.

Day four concludes with defending champion Costa Rica unbeaten record (3-0) and 15 points, Nicaragua with 13 points and 3-1 record.

Costa Rica’s superiority is evident in the matches’ stats; they held a huge 40-16 margin in kills, an 8-3 margin in blocking and 7-4 in service points.

From Costa Rica, opposite Mijal Hines scored a match-high of 16 points, middle blocker Daniela Vargas and outside hitter Tannia Carazo chipped in with 9 tallies apiece. On Nicaragua’s side, Florelissa Smith was the best scorer with 12 points.

Capatain Mijal Hines said “I believe that my team was too relaxed after winning our previous matches, this made us lose concentration as Nicaragua played more aggressively. We recovered very well in the second set but then again lost focus in the third”.

“Our attitude began high and our objective clear, we couldn’t remain positive and with energy during the whole match. We didn’t want to make things easy for Costa Rica” said captain Katy Gonzalez.

“We had Nicaragua’s game plan almost figured out. Almost every team will try to avoid our blocking so they will use short kills and other actions, this was effective for Nicaragua in set one and three, so Costa Rica has to get used to this. Nicaragua pushed hard and took advantage of our errors, which still are in my opinion too many. Our serves and attacks were more efficient today” said coach Horacio Bastit.

Coach Claudia Noguera indicated “it was a good start, as traced in today’s practice; I believe the anxiety to do things well cost us a bad second set and losing control. Costa Rica was who set the pace, taking the initiative”.