Costa Rica with strong start at U20 Central American

BELIZE CITY; Belize, July 19, 2017 – Costa Rica scored an emphatic 3-0 victory over Panama while Honduras and Nicaragua had to battle for their victories in opening day of the XVII U20 Central American Women’s Volleyball Championship in front of a full house at St Catherine Academy Gymnasium on Wednesday.

Costa Rica began the defense of their title with a categorical 3-0 (25-8, 25-12, 25-8) over Panama.

Edya Espinoza scored 18 points as the best offensive player for Costa Rica while Santa Volkovs added 13 in the victory. The service was one of the main weapons for the winners with 16 aces, five of them by Edya and four by Susan Alpizar. In attacks they also had the command 32-8 and dominated 4-1 in blocking.

In the second match of the day, Nicaragua recovered after losing the first two sets to defeat El Salvador 3-2 (21-25, 16-25, 25-18, 25-15, 15-11) after almost two hours of battle (1:49).

Dalia Conto had 15 points for Nicaragua followed by Maria Campos (14) and Eloisa Aburto (11). For El Salvador, Adriana Pleitez had 10, Adriana Dubón 9 and Alejandra Jiménez 7.

Both teams gave via errors more than half of the points of the opponent with 56 by Nicaragua and 47 by El Salvador. The Nicaraguans were better from the service line 14-5 in aces. In blocking the teams were almost even 8-7 and the winners held the advantage in attacks 33-26.

In the closing match, the hosts and Honduras engaged in a close battle with the Hondurans prevailing at the end 3-1 (25-22, 18-25, 25-17, 25-20) after more than hour and half of actions (1:36).

It was a duel with plenty rallies and both sides showing strength in attack, good defense and a blocking capacity that will create complications to opponents the rest of the event.

Nathaly Pérez was the top scorer for Honduras with 25 points while captain Ruth Aguilar has 11, six of them via aces. Tori Diego had 21 points for Belize and Mya Musa added 19.

Belize led in attacks 44-40 and serving aces 10-8, but Honduras was better in blocking 11-6 and benefitted from 34 errors by the opponents to their own 24.