Chiriquí, Panama, September 18, 2025.– The El Salvador National Team defeated Honduras 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-15) to claim its first victory at the VII AFECAVOL Men’s U23 Central American Championship, closing the group stage of the event.
El Salvador finished with a 1-2 win-loss record, placing third in Pool B, a position that guarantees them a chance to fight for fifth place on the final day of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Honduras ended in fourth place with no wins and must wait for the third-place finisher from Pool A to know their next opponent, in a match that will determine seventh place and the other contender for the fifth-place match.
El Salvador controlled the match from start to finish, outscoring Honduras in attacks 36-28, blocks 9-4, and serves 4-2, while committing fewer unforced errors (15 compared to Honduras’ 26).
On offense, Abner Cano was the top scorer for El Salvador with 21 points, while teammate Andrés Reyes added 12.
For Honduras, Jesús Montes carried the scoring load with 20 points, the only player on his team to reach double digits.
Following the victory, El Salvador’s head coach Andrea Genova stated: “Against Honduras, the team was motivated to show what they are capable of. The guys displayed a different attitude and their true value against a rival more at our level, which allowed them to play with more calm and reach a better level, different from what they show against teams that put more pressure on them. In that sense, the players need to mature more and learn to handle pressure.”
For his part, Honduras’ head coach Miguel Pagoaga said after the match: “The taste of defeat is horrible. The boys collapsed in this match. We were not able to implement what we had really trained. The inconsistency hurt us a lot, and we could not execute as we wanted.”
English 
Spanish