El Salvador impresses beating Belize 3-0

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, August 10, 2014. - El Salvador beat Belize 3-0 (25-18, 25-21, 27-25) with impressive comeback in the third set at the II Women’s U-23 AFECAVOL Central American Championship.

El Salvador came from seven points from behind in the third set, with Belize leading 21-14 to seal their first victory in the tournament. The winners began strong from the start while Belize had a slow beginning, managing to pull themselves together up to the third set.

With the victory, El Salvador has a total of five points and 1-3 win-loss record. Belize has the same five points but drops their record to 1-2.

El Salvador definitely benefited from Belize’s 40 unforced errors, against their 23 errors. Belize held advantage in kills by 35-28 while El Salvador topped the service category with 6-3; in blocking they were equally effective with 3 points each.

Maria Jose Galeano led El Salvador’s scores with 12 points, including 3 aces; contributing also with the winning cause was Aura Cortez with 8 points and Andrea Calderon with 7 points. Maurissa Williams led Belize with 16 points, all in kills, followed by Tichele Solis with 13 points.

Captain Gabriela Soriano of El Salvador said their victory was a combination of three things “our serves damaged Belize, our kills were firm and our collective work as a team were the primary reason things worked well today”.

“We started really, really slow, we weren’t able to pick up our pace and fell into a hole which we weren’t able to bounce out of. Our many failed serves didn’t get the team’s energy rolling. El Salvador did what they had to do and we must learn from every match” said captain Tichele Solis.

El Salvador’s Coach Nery Henriquez said his team is evolving “I knew that little by little my team was going to gain more confidence, they are awakening in a good moment and I feel satisfied that were not win-less anymore. Belize is a very tough team, they won to Panama and took a set away from Nicaragua to whom we lost, so we are on the right track”.

Belizean coach Jose Reyes indicated “I’m not convinced with my team’s performance in any of their games. I still have many unforced errors and today they were overwhelming. El Salvador played with many tricks that worked against us and they set the rhythm of the match”.