El Salvador beats Honduras in five sets

BELIZE CITY, Belize, September 29, 2016. - El Salvador beat Honduras 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 25-18, 22-25, 15-13) on Thursday at the AFECAVOL Men’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament in St. Catherine Academy Center of Belize City. 

El Salvador started off with a lot of energy but Honduras’ intensity was also high; both squads never stopped pushing, extending the actions to a tie-break. El Salvador has 3-2 win record and 15 points, while Honduras drops to 1-4 and stands with 8 points.

El Salvador held a huge 62-49 margin in spikes and 10-7 advantage in blocking. Honduras did better in the serving category by 6-3. El Salvador allowed 43 scoring errors and Honduras 36.

Outside hitter Rodrigo Chavez was again  El Salvador’s top scorer with 22 points, joined by opposite player Franklin Flores with 17 points, outside hitter Francisco Hernandez with 15 points and opposite Carlos Rodriguez with 11. Honduras also distributed their attacking in William Thompson (15), Carlos Osorio (11), Gerardo Altamirano (11) and Wilfredo Lopez (10).

El Salvador (3-2) will face Dominican Republic (3-1) on Friday and Honduras (1-4) plays against Belize (3-2).

Julio Calleja, Libero of Honduras: “We are warriors, we never stop fighting and battling to win, our problem is concentration. For tomorrow’s match, we should play with the same intensity, but with the mentality that we had in our first match against Belize to finish in a good position”.

Samuel Hernandez, Libero of Honduras: “Honduras was expecting a tough match. We must remain positive because our team has a new generation of players, we have to be patient. The key word is attitude and we must keep working. Honduras finishes against Belize and we have to improve our attitude”.