El Salvador secures Silver medal with impetuous five set win

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 15, 2017.- El Salvador secured the silver medal of the men’s Volleyball tournament at the XI Central American Games Managua 2017 surviving their third five set thriller defeating Panama 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 15-9).

With one day left of competition, El Salvador has enough to celebrate their podium feat, with 5-0 perfect win-loss record and 18 points. This is El Salvador’s third time in the history of the Games to finish among the top three, in 1973 and 2001 they won the bronze medal.

El Salvador’s high energy and impetuous performance pulled them out of their 1-2 set deficit to Panama that finishes the event with 1-5 record and 10 points.

El Salvador held 56-45 advantage in kills and 6-5 in serves; Panama’s blocking was by far more effective with 14-7 margin. El Salvador finished with 36 errors and Panama with 38.

Outside hitter Rodrigo Chavez of El Salvador scored a math-high of 23 points. Opposite Carlos Rodriguez and middle blocker Carlos Escobar added 16 and 10 points for the winning campaign. Outside hitter Oswald Marshall led Panama with 20 points, followed by middle blocker Ludrik West with 11 points and opposite Donaldo Ureña with 10 points.

El Salvador (5-0) will face Guatemala (4-0) the other unbeaten team up to now.

Captain of El Salvador Rodrigo Chavez: “Our high energy and passion has been our best feature during the entire tournament. Once again we showed our good attitude and team effort; the key element in any team sport is working together”.

 Head coach of El Salvador Nery Henriquez: “We are tired, but fortunately we are in good physical condition. Today Leonel Hernandez had the chance to help us beat Panama’s strong efforts and taller blockers. Our impetuous performance prevailed as well as our desire to secure the silver medal, the first ever for El Salvador”.

Head coach of Panamá Domingo Avila: “We couldn’t reach our goal, but the team performed well. This is my last tournament and I can say that our new generation of players is talented, this was a good experience for them, now they know they must prepare to keep on recovering and winning”.

Head coach of Panamá Eugenio Ortiz: “Our errors are too many; we improve in receiving but our setter fails; then we dominate the setting but our attacks fail; and this has been repeated the whole tournament. We reach the fifth set and we can’t come on top”.