Nicaragua recovers to beat El Salvador 3-1

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, October 20, 2022.- Nicaragua (2-0) came from behind to win a tough game to El Salvador 3-1 (28-30, 25-22, 25-19, 25-15) against El Salvador (2-1) in the closing of day three at the XIX AFECAVOL Men’s U21 Central American Championship.

The first set is the longest of the event until now, with El Salvador benefiting from the hosts errors, who lost three set points from point 26.

Nevertheless, from the second set forward, Nicaragua pulled ahead and despite El Salvador’s efforts, the variations in kills, mostly from the ends, did a lot of damage.

Five Nicaraguan players scored double digits: Evans Solís (16), Josué Blandón (14), Víctor Cruz (11), as well as Angelo Guadamuz and Rafael Hernández (10). From El Salvador, Abner Cano ended with 14 and Gabriel Vargas with 12.

Nicaragua dominated 53-38 in attacks, 10-6 in blocks and 4-2 in serves, committing 39 errors against 35 from their opponents.

Rafael Hernández, captain of Nicaragua: “I am proud of my team, of the way we recovered. We improved the errors we committed in the first set, the failed serves and bad reception, we went adjusting little by little and got the result”.

Jorge Mena, coach of Nicaragua: “We always give a good spectacle facing El Salvador because of our rivalry, but today we needed the result in our favor, it was important, and we achieved so. Our goal today was to win, and we did it with our bench players on the court and they made the difference, they solved well”.

On Friday, El Salvador meets with Panama at 4:00 p.m. and Nicaragua goes against Guatemala at 6:00 p.m.

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