El Salvador blanks St Kitts and Nevis to take third spot

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, April 28,  2013 -  El Salvador disposed  of St Kitts and Nevis 3 -0 (25-16, 25 -22,25-21) to earn the third place at the NORCECA Second Round Tournament  Pool J of the 2014 FIVB  Men’s World Championships.

The Salvadorians who at one point were in pole position for a place in the final, having defeated St Kitts and Nevis and St Lucia before losing to Haiti in their last preliminary match, were all over a depleted St Kitts and Nevis outfit.

David Vargas and Franscisco Hernandez had 13 and 11 points respectively for El Salvador, while Shawn Seabrooks with 21 and St Clair Hodge with 10, led the scoring for the winless St Kitts and Nevis.

Despite the win, it was an end of a dream for Coach Gabriel Linares who disclosed that getting to the third round, was the team’s main objective on their mission here. He said his task is now to work with some younger players as he tries to build a team for future competitions.

Meanwhile, St Kitts and Nevis’ St Clair Hodge belied that in spite of not winning a match in the competition, they are still on par with the others, but must have to get things right on the home front before they venture out to in competitions of this magnitude.

“We know what we have to do, look at our individual game so that we could get together,” Hodge stated.

Hodge said during the competition his team was at a disadvantage as two of their key players suffered injuries, which affected the final compositions.