MANAGUA, Nicaragua, October 20, 2022.- Costa Rica defeated Honduras 3-0 (25-21, 28-26, 25-16) on day three at the XIX AFECAVOL Men’s U21 Central American Championship.
With difficulties and recovering from two-set points, Costa Rica won the second set thanks to blocking and Doswel Smith powerful kills, that made the difference the entire match.
Smith scored 23 points, 10 of them in the third set, and Johan Cerdas contributed with 12. For Honduras, Alejandro Lobo registered 14 points a Jonathan Meza 12.
Costa Rica’s attacks produced 42 points against 30 from their opponents; both scored 6 in blocks and Honduras did better in serves 5-4, while committing 26 errors to 22 from their opponent.
Dowshel Smith, captain of Costa Rica: “Yesterday’s match was in our hands, but small details stopped us from winning, but we corrected what we were lacking, and we were able to win today. We were relaxed, things were a bit difficult, but we were focused on improving errors in our past performance and played more calm, less stressed”.
Alberto Blanco, coach of Costa Rica: “The team had no preparation matches back in Costa Rica, so we are improving some aspects with each game. Tomorrow will be another “practice” against Belize and we’ll go on improving little by little. We must add with each match, we still have options to fight for the gold medal, anything can happen”.
On Friday, Belize faces Costa Rica at 2:00 p.m. and Honduras has the day off.