Mexico outplayed Costa Rica for fifth place

FORT LAUDERDALE, United States, July 31, 2016.- Mexico outplayed Costa Rica 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-13) to finish in fifth place of the NORCECA Women’s U-20 Continental Championship at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

 Mexico went in the fifth place match improving as the actions developed and Costa Rican blockers stopped reading their spikers’ plays. In set three, Mexico shattered Costa Rica’s backline defense.

Mexico outnumbered Costa Rica in spikes (47-17) and serves (13-4); Costa Rica held advantage in blocking (4-0). Mexico scored on 19 errors from Costa Rica, while the Central American scored on 22 Mexican errors.

Mexican Kathya Garcia led all scorers with 19 points on 17 kills and 2 aces; the other player finishing with double digits was Costa Rican Isla Johnson with 10 points, 8 on kills, one block and one ace.

“This was an excellent experience, working together as a team was really important, we hope to work harder for better results in the future” said captain Kathya Garcia of Mexico.

Mexican coach Mario Rodríguez said “slowly, one step at a time our rhythm went on improving, we must correct little things in defense and serves, but in spikes there is a lot of work to do”.

Andrés Lopez of Costa Rica said “what we learned from today is that Mexico in this category is not unreachable. Mexico’s better attacking complicated our defense, we must work and it’s possible to do so”.

Isla Johnson, a U-18 player and top scorer today said “we were very disciplined in blocking, but we lost focus and that is what we need to work on. As a team we know one another and we learned a lot”.