David, Chiriquí, Panama, September 29, 2023 – Nicaragua battled to defeat Honduras 3-1 (21-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-20) and reached three wins with two losses at the VI AFECAVOL Men’s U23 Central American Championship at Centro Deportivo La Basita.
Honduras, which has no victories in this tournament, started by winning the first set due to Nicaragua’s passiveness, who couldn’t respond. Leonardo Villegas of Honduras scored 11 points in that first set.
Nicaragua managed to recover to lock the win in four sets but struggled to overcome Honduras’ persistent offense.
Lenín Gómez and Josué Blandón led Nicaragua with 15 points each. Leonardo Villegas from Honduras led all scorers with 28 points, and his teammate Javier Díaz added 15 points.
Nicaragua scored 38 points on Honduras’ unforced errors, while Honduras held a 52-50 advantage in attacks, 10-7 in blocks, and 5-1 in aces. Nicaragua gave away 19 points on errors.
AFECAVOL SUB23 MASCULINO, PANAMÁ
QUOTES
Jorge Mena, coach of Nicaragua: “Now, everything is getting complicated for us because we should have won in three sets. The tournament is becoming challenging for us due to our setters (one of the starters got injured before the tournament), and we had to use an opposite player to secure the match, and we did it”.
“We don’t see tomorrow’s game (against Belize) as difficult or impossible. We must bring out the best from the entire team to try to defeat Belize and have a chance at the medal, but it will be tough. My team knows that tomorrow is do or die, and it will depend on the attitude we bring to the game”.
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