Guatemala tops El Salvador in 3-1 thriller

BELIZE CITY, Belize, July 19, 2023.-The third day of competition at the XIV AFECAVOL U19 Women’s Central American Championship ended with Guatemala’s victory 3-1 (25-17/25-15/24-26/25-20) over El Salvador with sets.

Guatemala came from a day off, with strength on the court at the Belize City Civic Center and were solid, winning the first set 25-17.

In the second set an advantage of 10 points (25-15) put Guatemala in the lead, making believe that the game would end 3-0, but the third set brought surprises for the supporters.

The third set was thrilling, El Salvador was determined to extend the game, every point was battled; the players of El Salvador started to chase the win and evened the score to 21 to finally win 26-24.

In the fourth set, both teams were determined to win, however, Guatemala was superior and with a 25-20 they won the set and the game.

Guatemala prevailed over El Salvador on a huge 19 to 8 advantage in serves, they were superior also in attacks 45-34 and ended with an advantage of 8-6 in blocks.

The middles led Guatemala’s attacks, Valeria Herrera with 21 points, 16 on kills, 2 on blocks and 3 on serves was the best scorer of the match; Camila Rodríguez added 13 points, on 5 attacks, 1 block and 7 serves and Andrea Mendizabal score on 5 points from kills, four from blocks and four from serves, for an overall 13 points.

Naomi Mendez scored 16 points, 14 on attacks and one block for El Salvador, her teammate, opposite hitter María Rodriguez did 8 points on attacks, three blocks and two serves, totalizing 13 points.

On Wednesday Guatemala will face Panama at 5:00pm and El Salvador will have the day off.

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INTERVIEWS

Valeria Sofía Vega López, opposite of Guatemala: “This match was great, they played us very well, and we did the same, I loved this game, we went with our all, El Salvador won us a set, but we recovered and won”.

Allison Méndez, lateral de El Salvador: “It was an interesting match, with ups and downs, Guatemala is a tough team, and we knew it ahead, despite the loss, I am happy with the result, I know we gave everything on the court, we could have done a bigger effort, but from the losses you learn”.