El Salvador beat Honduras in Managua 2017

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 10, 2017.- El Salvador defeated Honduras 3-0 (25-23, 25-23, 25-17) to start the men’s volleyball tournament of the 2017 Managua Central American Games

at the Alexis Argüello sports complex.

El Salvador and Honduras engaged in a close battle in sets one and two, with exciting attacks and long rallies. El Salvador played with better rhythm in set three to grab their first victory.

El Salvador dominated Honduras with 38-35 margin in attacks and benefiting form 25 opponent errors. Both teams scored on 7 blocks and 5 aces.

Guandique Rodriguez of El Salvador led all scorers with 15 points and Rordrigo Chavez along with Franklin Flores added 9 and 8 points respectively. Honduras had three players with double-digits, William Thompson topped with 13 points, Carlos Osorio scored 12 points and German Moreira added 10 points.

On day two of actions, El Salvador has a rest day and Honduras will meet Costa Rica.

Captain of El Salvador Rodrigo Chavez: “El Salvador used to depend only of one or two players, now we are 12 players playing together and anyone of us is capable of performing well. We’ve been practicing hard for 8 months and we expected to beat Honduras. We weren’t’ focused and we were too nervous starting, that’s why the score was very close”.

Head coach of El Salvador Nery Henriquez, “First matches are always tricky, all the teams are nervous and it showed in the first two sets. We went on improving and studying Honduras’ moves; we adjusted better our blocking and our outside hitters were more effective. For me, Honduras will play much better in next matches”.

Captain of Honduras Luis Membreño: “It’s a difficult outcome for my team. We held friendly matches against El Salvador and we were expecting a tough battle. Honestly, we knew our performance was going to be weak because we haven’t been able to gather for practice for over a month, some players were injured and others were outside the country; I am not happy. There’s a long road ahead, we hope to do it better tomorrow against Costa Rica”.

Head coach of Honduras Juan Andres Leon: “I am realistic, I am happy with my team’s performance. To play well you need to practice, and it was difficult to gather the whole team for practice. I invited younger players to come here which I know will produce better results with the strategy I’ve prepared. In the end our results will improve”.