El Salvador remains undefeated at AFECAVOL U21 

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, October 1, 2019.- Host El Salvador remained undefeated at the eighteenth AFECAVOL U21 Men’s Central American Championship after winning to Honduras 3-1 (25-18, 14-25, 25-11, 25-15) on Tuesday at FESAVOL Gymnasium. 

It was a rollercoaster victory for El Salvador as they led sets one and three by comfortable advantage. Honduras remained on top the entire second set and El Salvador recovered from a five-point deficit (6-11) taking their second consecutive victory of the tournament. 

El Salvador led 38-28 in attacks and 7-5 in serves; Honduras held a slim 12-11 margin in blocks. El Salvador committed 24 unforced errors and scored 33 points from Honduras’ errors. 

Middle blocker Diego Guidos led El Salvador once again by scoring 21 points on 14 kills and 6 huge blocks; outside hitter Alejandro Navarro chipped in with 12 points on 11 kills and one ace. On Honduras side, opposite player Alejandro Lobo scored 12 points on 7 kills and 5 monster blocks, outside hitters Allan Escoto and Kevin Herrera contributed with 10 points apiece. 

El Salvador (2-0) plays against Guatemala (1-1) on Wednesday, while Honduras (1-1) meets Panama (0-1).  

Diego Guidos, Captain of El Salvador: “We were able to fix our receiving errors, we followed our coaches’ instructions carefully, and we attacked where they told us. We are happy to come out on top”.  

Allan Escoto, Captain of Honduras: “El Salvador has a good team; they gave us a hard time. We followed our coaches’ instructions but our attitude was low and we let El Salvador catch up in the last set which we were comfortably leading “.  

Alexander Polanco, Head Coach of El Salvador: “It was a rollercoaster, which is normal because they are young and can’t control their emotions, sometimes they were too anxious. The team is on the right track, we were able to keep on serving, we kept control of the net; we have the height for blocking and we were good counterattacking”. 

Osiel Vásquez, Head Coach of Honduras: “The guys could keep their game level, which is natural in this category, they are too unstable. Once the complex one (receive, pass, attack) worked, we were successful; in the set we won it worked one hundred percent. I tried to make changes with bench players to help the team calm down but it didn’t work well”.