TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, November 10, 2026. – El Salvador opened the 21st AFECAVOL Central American U21 Women’s Volleyball Championship with an important victory, defeating hosts Honduras in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 30-28, 25-15) in the opening match of Group A.
The Salvadorans capitalized on numerous errors by the home team and showed greater composure in crucial moments to secure a victory highlighted by two fiercely contested opening sets.
Honduras had opportunities to win both sets, but unforced errors and El Salvador’s determination in the closing stages tipped the balance in favor of the visitors, who dominated the third set more comfortably.
In the first set, Honduras took a 15-13 lead, but El Salvador responded through Galilea Guardado and Elizabeth Solórzano, who contributed in attack and blocking to turn the score around and secure the set 25-23.
The second set was the most closely contested of the match, featuring long rallies and outstanding defensive plays from both teams. Sasha Kawas kept Honduras in contention by scoring four of her team’s final six points. However, serving and attacking errors ultimately favored the Salvadorans, who prevailed 30-28.
With a two-set advantage, El Salvador took control of the third, played with greater confidence, and closed it out convincingly 25-15 to secure its first victory of the championship.
Although Honduras held a 39-30 advantage in attacks, El Salvador had a slight edge in blocks (3-2) and serves (5-4). The most significant difference came in unforced errors, with Honduras committing 42 compared to just 21 by El Salvador.
Sasha Kawas was the match’s leading scorer with 20 points for Honduras, followed by Elizabeth Janania with 10 and Paulina Becker with 8. For El Salvador, Galilea Guardado led the offense with 12 points, while Evelyn Ramírez and Elizabeth Solórzano contributed 7 apiece.
Group A action continues on Wednesday, November 11, when Honduras faces Belize at 7:00 p.m. The defending champions will make their tournament debut.
Dany Calderón, head coach of El Salvador: “Defense is one of the areas we have been working on to help us build our transition offense. We have also focused on reception so we can play a little faster with our middle blockers, and it worked. We made a couple of substitutions that helped us close out the second set, which was almost slipping away from us. It was a tremendous second set.”
Evelyn Ramírez, captain of El Salvador: “We are a very united team. We have worked hard to achieve these results, and we saw that today. We performed very well both defensively and offensively, and we are proud to have won this match. It was a very exciting game, and this result reflects the effort of the entire team. We are very happy.”
Marvin Andino, head coach of Honduras: “I told my players in both the first and second sets that El Salvador had only scored its own points up to point 11 in the first set and point 13 in the second; the rest came from our mistakes. It is very difficult to win a match that way. I counted 47 errors on our side, and it is extremely difficult to give away that many points. We hope the players regroup tomorrow and make better decisions, but I also believe the emotional aspect affected them.”
Sasha Kawas, captain of Honduras: “Tomorrow is a new day, and I believe we will come out much stronger. Today we lacked energy and were very nervous. We learned from this experience. We have many young players, and that also plays a role in the emotional side of the game.”