Honduras wins Central American Cup opener to El Salvador

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, October 6, 2014. - Honduras started off with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-17) victory over El Salvador at the XVIII Central American Cup opener in Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.

Honduras began the actions with confidence but not showing a full dominance over El Salvador; with both teams showing similar features as well as deficiencies. Honduras had a solid lead of ten points in the early stage of the match but wasn’t able to maintain it as El Salvador pushed strong with effective blocking.

Honduras held a wide advantage in kills and serves by 29-18 and 12-6 respectively. El Salvador did better in the blocking category with 7-2 margin.

Top scorer for Honduras was setter Estela Duron with 13 points, followed by opposite player Catarine Leiva with 10 points. For El Salvador, outside hitter Adriana Flores scored 11 points.

“It’s very motivating starting a tournament winning, even though El Salvador gave us a hard time, especially in the second set. Honduras did well but there are things we must improve to keep distance in the scores” indicated captain Estela Duron.

For Adriana Flores, captain of El Salvador, the team performed as well as they could as they’re missing their principal setter “the team did well, we have young players and the adjustments made worked out but we lost concentration forcing us to commit basic technical errors”.

Cuban Coach Marcos Tejada for Honduras said to be content starting with a win “our strategy to take an early lead worked but the lack of concentration made us lose it. El Salvador made it difficult for us with their serves as my players were falling in imprecisions. It’s normal to feel tense in the first match but we must learn to enjoy and try to adjust our mistakes”.

“Honduras did very well” started saying coach Alexander Polanco of El Salvador. “As much as we complicated Honduras with our serves, we also miss too many due to the inexperience of our young players. One of our youngest players performed very well as we are building a new generation of players. I believe we could have won the second set; but in general I am pleased” he added.