Tegucigalpa, August 01, 2022.- Costa Rica saved three match points in the first set to win 3-0 (29-27, 25-19, 25-13) over El Salvador in the end, and remain undefeated in four games, in the V Afecavol Women’s Under 23 Championship.
The Salvadorans pressed in the first set until they tied at 24 points, after trailing 24-21, but they did not take advantage of the match points they had, failing at key moments, while Costa Rica maintained concentration and gave the first emotional blow for later the game arrive.
Lakysha Thompson was the top scorer for Costa Rica with 13 points, to 11 from María Sofía Arroyo, while El Salvador had 13 points from Daniela López and 10 from María Rodríguez. Costa Rica dominated in attack 39-30, in blocking 7-5 and in service they were equal 2-2, with 31 errors by the Salvadorans to 22 by their rivals.
Lakysha Thompson, best scorer for Costa Rica: “I feel that the team has been on the rise; in each game we improve, like we caught the mistakes of the previous game and corrected them today and that is helping us to progress in each game. The more a team demands of us, the better we prepare for the next match, they demand more of us and it is better for us. I feel that if we stay united and if we play our game we will continue to achieve victories, luckily we have a very united group, we have played together for many years and we have incorporated the new ones very well and we support each other”.
Andrés Carvajal, coach of Costa Rica: “We are happy with the result and with the level that the rival showed, it was difficult for us at the beginning, during some stages of the game we had to make variations and luckily we found an answer on the bench as well, there it is our strength. In the replacement players today we find that respite, that emotional push that we needed and we managed to get the job done”.
Noé Fabián, coach of El Salvador: “It was a good match, especially in the first two sets, in the third we fell apart mentally, since fatigue affected us a lot, but I’ll take the good part, the first two sets, which we were three times to win it, but small mistakes were costly. El Salvador has always stood out for the grit and intensity that we put into it, we’ve had a lot of difficulties since players were injured, but we have to keep giving our best”.
Costa Rica will face Guatemala this Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. in a match that could define a place in the medal table. El Salvador will face Belize at 4:30 p.m.
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