Panama debuts with victory over El Salvador

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, October 7, 2014. - Panama made its debut at the Women’s XVIII Central American Cup with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23) victory over El Salvador on the second day of actions at Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.

Both teams started performing with confidence and fast tactics. As the match developed, the winners managed to take control and distance in the scores during the first two sets with a better offensive strategy. In the third set, El Salvador took a six point lead and for there on it was anybody’s match. El Salvador’s good defensive efforts weren’t enough to stop Panama, dropping their win-loss record to 0-2.

Panama held advantage in blocking with a 15-7 margin, as well as in kills by 41-32. El Salvador’s serving was superior by 9-2.

Captaina Joaanna Arroy led Panama with 23 points, middle blocker Angela Evans contributed with 14 points and outside hitter Jazmin Rojas with 10. Outside hitter Madeline Gonzalez was El Salvador’s top scorer with 12 points, captain Adriana Flores added the same amount, while middle blocker Gabriela Martinez scored 11 points.

“First of all I thank God for his guidance and I congratulate El Salvador for an impressive performance, they spotted our weakness taking good advantage of them. It was a tough match and I feel proud of my team because we have a lot of young players who showed strength to take the win and our coach knew who to move the elements in our favor” indicated Joanna Arroyo.

For Adriana Flores, the loss is consequence of a late reaction during the match “we put up a good battle up to the third set and the win could have been for anyone. We improved from yesterday as we concentrated in not making the same mistakes”.

Coach Reynaldo Ortega of Panama said to agree with Arroyo “I can add that the team had less energy in the third set. I’m pleased that the young players worked well under pressure”.

“We are improving, in the beginning we were attacking only by the middle and then we change to use more our outside hitters, this worked well but the girls got desperate and couldn’t maintain the score advantage in the fourth set” said coach Alexander Polanco of El Salvador.