Guatemala and Nicaragua take front row seats

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, July 18, 2014 – The opening day of the VIII U21 Beach Volleyball Central American Championship left several pairs in comfortable positions after winning their first two matches.

The men’s tournament has eight teams divided into two pools playing under a round robin format with the top team advancing directly to the semifinals with the second and third placed teams playing in the quarterfinals. In the women’s segment of six teams a round robin will be played with the top two teams playing in the final.

In Pool A,

Gerson Contreras/Denis López of Nicaragua-2 won 2-1 (19-21, 21-13, 15-11) over El Salvador-1 (Carlos Rodríguez/Armando Guatemala), got a 2-0 (21-14, 21-9) victory over  Honduras (Carlos Ramos/Oscar Salgado) and completed a perfect day by defeating  2-0 (21-13, 21-12) Guatemala (José Coronado/Mark Álvarez).

With three victories the Nicaraguans advanced directly to Sunday’s semifinals while the teams qualified of Pool B are still to be decided.

Guatemala (Coronado/Álvarez) defeated 2-0 (21-4, 21-5) Honduras (Ramos/Salgado).

In Pool B, Nicaragua-1 (Rubén Mora/Miguel López) edged 2-1 (22-20,19-21, 15-) El Salvador-2 (Cristian Vargas/Michael Santacruz).

Costa Rica, with Anthony Solís/Andrey Quintero, beat Mora/López of Nicaragua by scores of 29-27, 21-15 and also got a 2-1 (21-18, 19-21, 15-12) victory over Panamá (José González/Elmer Valdez).

El Salvador-1 (Rodríguez/Guatemala) won 2-0 (21-12, 21-9) against Guatemala (Coronado/Álvarez). Panamá (González/Valdez) defeated 2-0 (21-17, 21-15) El Salvador-2 (Vargas/ Santacruz).

In the women’s segment, Guatemala claimed two victories as also did Costa Rica. Estephanie Bethancourt/Natalia Girón of Guatemala won 2-0 (21-5, 21-8) over Panamá (Iris Urrunaga/Marlene González) and added another victory 2-0 (21-12, 21-7) against El Salvador-2 (María Ponce/Yisel Villegas).

Costa Rica (Gabriela Arias/Yuliana González) won 2-0 (21-11, 21-14) over Nicaragua (Socorro López/Osiris Juárez) and also won 2-0 against El Salvador-2 (Ponce/Villegas). The Nicaraguans in their second match defeated 2-0 (21-11, 21-7) Panamá (Urrunaga/González).

El Salvador-1 (Aura Cortez/Alexandra Calderón) won 2-0 (21-17, 21-11) over El Salvador-2 (Ponce/Villegas).

The matches will continue on Saturday with the pool play in the men’s event and the last matches of the women’s segment to decide the finalists.