SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, August 20, 2022. At the close of the fourth day of the V Central American U23 Championship, Guatemala won 3-2 against El Salvador in a vibrant match that ended with partials of 25-18/20-25 /21-25/25-17/15-11.
The first set went to Guatemala 25 to 18. For the second and third sets, the fans present at the Palacio de los Deportes in San Salvador did not stop supporting their team and were the fuel for their team to take over these sets 25 -20 and 25-21.
In the fourth set, Guatemala came on strong, willing to extend the match to a fifth set, and that’s how it was, thanks to corner hitter Javier Lucero, the Guatemalans defeated the locals 25-17.
In the fifth and final set, Guatemala drowned out the scream of point to the fans who cheered the locals, beating them 15-11.
Guatemala had three outstanding players who together scored 55 points for their team: Javier Lucero with 21, José Pérez with 19 and Yeferson Zavala with 15.
Abner Cano of El Salvador was the spark for his team with 23 points, but it was not enough to win.
The Guatemalans were better attacking 61-45 and serving 10-4, while El Salvador led in blocking 11-9 committing 26 errors to Guatemala’s 36.
Guatemala will face Honduras at 5:00 pm and El Salvador will face Panama at 7:30 pm, on the last day of competition.
Statements
Javier Lucero, striker from Guatemala: “It was a very hard-fought match, the opposing players are very strong, we expected a better result, although we got the victory and we are still fighting for a medal”.
Rodrigo Mayora, center back of El Salvador: “We had a very complicated game, extensive due to rain problems, it was very complicated for us, the truth is that we were all tired from the previous games, but it was a very close game that we all tried to play the best possible, the rival was just as strong as us and the result could have been for anyone”.
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