MANAGUA, Nicaragua, 24 de octubre 2022.- Costa Rica beat El Salvador 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-22) to finish with three wins and three losses at the XIX AFECAVOL Men’s U21 Central American Championship.
El Salvador committed 27 errors that cost them the loss because Costa Rica only committed a total of 12, with advantage of 44-41 in kills and 5-2 in serves; both scored 7 in blocks.
Dowshel Smith scored 23 points and Johan Cerdas 12 for Costa Rica, while Gabriel Vargas scored 22 and Abner Cano 12 for El Salvador.
Costa Rica finished with 19 points in three victories and three losses and will have to wait for the result between Panama and Honduras to decide the bronze medal. El Salvador ended with a record of 2-4 for fifth position.
Alberto Blanco, coach of Costa Rica: “We were playing at a strong level, but we had a rare set back against Panama, but I believe the teams’ position goes in relation to their work; Guatemala and Nicaragua are working well, Panama and we are going one step at a time. We’ve had difficulties in putting together a national team for the past years because our players are studying abroad, they’ve been playing in other countries and it’s hard to have a good team”.
Alexander Polanco, coach of El Salvador: “This has been a bitter experience, we didn’t have a setter to manage the players, but he’s young, he only has one tournament, and it wasn’t too demanding. In general, the team could’ve given more, we lost close matches and that discouraged the group and they fell, not because they are capable. The team is young, and we are satisfied with their projection”.
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