Guatemala beats El Salvador in straight sets

CIUDAD QUESADA, Costa Rica, November 20, 2019 - Guatemala achieved its first victory (1-1) in the XIII U18 Central American Women's Volleyball Championship after defeating El Salvador (0-2) in straight sets 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-18).

Both teams remained evened until the second third of the set, even being 15-15, but from there on Guatemala found the key to open the Salvadoran bolt, making use of its service to complicate their opponents.

Guatemala amassed 20 points in service, only the Libero players did not score in this line, while they got 29 in attacks and 6 in blocks. El Salvador was left with 23 points of attacks, three in blocks and eight in services.

Diana Barillas with 15 points, 4 of them in serves, was the best for Guatemala, and María Santa Cruz contributed 10. For El Salvador, four players finished with six points, highlighting Isabella Portillo and María Rodríguez for their attacks.

David Aldana, coach of Guatemala: “The pressure in this category will always exist, and especially when we face El Salvador or Nicaragua, countries with which there are very strong rivalries. On the other hand, we have noticed that one of the fundamentals that all the teams have put emphasis on has been the service, almost all the serves are  strong type of U20 ... Yesterday that affected us and today, we learned of the defeat and we knew how to amend that "

Sady López, coach of El Salvador: “We started well, because we maintained an even game, but from point 15 on the players got out of control, many serves failed and that discouraged them. I hope to recover them, but they also have to do their part to improve the attitude.”

Guatemala will face Honduras on Thursday at 5:00 p.m., while El Salvador goes against Nicaragua at 3:00 p.m.