SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, August 21, 2022. The Nicaraguan National Team is the new U23 Champion by leading the standings with five victories in the V Central American U23 Championship.
The first match of the last day of the tournament would end 3-1 with partial 25-23/25-16/20-25/25-21 in favor of Nicaragua against Costa Rica.
The Nicaraguans only needed to win a set in the match they would play on the last day against Costa Rica and they would do so after winning the first set 25-23.
Nicaragua would start the second set knowing they were Cup champions and with their adrenaline pumping, they would also leave this set with a wide 25-16 advantage.
Costa Rica, for its part, would not lower its arms, it would come out determined to extinguish the celebration of the champions in the third set, the Costa Ricans would be more compacted on the court and they would leave the third set 25-20, forcing the fourth set.
For this set, both teams would show their best weapons, in a very close set, which would end with Nicaragua winning 25-21.
With this result, Nicaragua confirms its supremacy in the 2022 tournament, winning undefeated and achieving the title of this category for the first time.
The best scorer for the new champions was Jefferson Cascante with 16 points. For his part in Costa Rica, the Captain, Josué Rojas got 25 points.
Nicaragua led attacks 51-50, as well as services 6-5. While both squads tied at 12 blocks.
Nicaragua achieved 26 points due to opponent errors and Costa Rica 18.
Statements
Arturo Solano, coach of Costa Rica: “Evaluating the tournament, it was a very difficult one for us, it was difficult for us to find a game rhythm, we found it in two games and in the last one we got the Tournament Champion and now we wait for results to see if we can enter the medal table”.
John Morales, Captain of Nicaragua: “We as players feel very proud to make Nicaragua champion for the first time in a Central American U23 tournament. Taking away Guatemala’s undefeated record after having been a four-time champion, now we are the new champions. It was hard, it wasn’t easy for us, we killed ourselves training every day, even in the tournament things were complicated for us but we always knew how to pull it off. We thank our coaches for the confidence they gave to each of the 14 who are here and nothing else to celebrate now and thank God”.
Jorge Mena, coach of Nicaragua: “Champion in this category for the first time in the history of Nicaragua, since we arrived in El Salvador, we came with a positive mentality that we came to win but we were going to go game by game and some things got complicated.” matches, but key games, against Guatemala the next day we had the best match of the tournament that we played against El Salvador, five dramatic sets and after the others it was to win them comfortably, in the end the last game with Costa Rica was complicated for us little but we knew that if we took a set from the Ticos we were going to be champions anyway, but we didn’t want to lose a game, thank God we got the result and we are champions. We dedicate this award to all the people who have supported us in Nicaragua.”
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