MANAGUA, Nicaragua, September 26, 2024.- El Salvador pulled off a great comeback, winning 3-1 (22-25, 25-18, 25-11, 25-23) against Honduras to secure their first victory in the inaugural AFECAVOL U17 Central American Girls’ Championship.
Honduras came into the first set energized, winning 25-22 with strong blocking and effective serves. However, El Salvador shook off that initial blow and returned to convincingly win the second and third sets, capitalizing on their rivals’ mistakes, as Honduras struggled to find a response.
In total, Honduras committed 47 unforced errors, while El Salvador had 36. El Salvador dominated in attack (39-25) and service (9-8), while Honduras led in blocking (8-2), with five effective blocks from Virginia Herdocia.
For El Salvador, Adriana Vargas scored 11 points and Katya Cunza added 10. Herdocia was the top scorer for Honduras with 12 points.
On Friday, during the fourth day of competition, El Salvador will face Guatemala at 1:30 p.m., and Honduras will play Belize at 4:00 p.m.
Pedro Rivas, Head coach of El Salvador: “We have been playing against two teams of almost our level, Guatemala and Belize, teams in our range. We’ve been working toward improving our game, which comes with match volume and experience. The team has been progressing, and today we saw the result against Honduras, who are also on our level. Honduras is a very resilient team that gave us trouble, but thanks to the talent of the girls, we managed to overcome the situation. After the first set, which was a bit complicated, we wanted to see how the team would perform, and we found our rhythm, which we maintained throughout the following sets, and ultimately, we won”.
Cristiam Rodríguez, Head coach of Honduras: “Honestly, we had different expectations for this match. Losing in this way is a bit difficult. We made too many unnecessary errors, and El Salvador took full advantage and deserved the win. With girls this age, it’s tough sometimes. The preparation might be good, but internally, we don’t always know how they’re feeling. We’ll try to change that for the upcoming matches. I believe it’s also part of the growth in this age group. We’re looking forward to giving the younger girls, who are still U15, more experience, so that in the future, in this age group, the outcome may be different”.
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