Nicaragua – Panama
Costa Rica recovered from losing the opening set to defeat Guatemala while Nicaragua saw off Panama in straight sets.
Guatemala will play Panama and Honduras will meet El Salvador in the quarterfinals of Thursday.
Nicaragua 3, Panama 0
Nicaragua booked the ticket to the women’s semifinals with a 3-0 record in Pool B following their victory over Panama in straight sets (25-19, 25-19, 25-23). Hellen Traña topped the winners with 14 points and Maryuri Torres added 10 points. The best scorer for Panama was Joanna Arroyo with 10 points.
“We accomplished our first goal and now we must prepare mentally to reach the final match. Panama battled hard but our experience made the difference and I am very satisfied” said Claudia Noguera of Nicaragua.
Honduras 3, Belize 0
Honduras took advantage of 39 unforced opponent errors to score a 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-20) victory over Belize and claim second place in Pool B. Honduran Jennifer Torres had 10 points as the only player with double figures for the winners. Shantel Arnold and Tichele Solis had 15 and 10 points respectively for the losers.
Honduras’ captain, Tessa Flores said “we knew Belize was a difficult team to beat so we committed ourselves to play as best as possible”.
Costa Rica 3, Guatemala 1
Costa Rica suffered a scare before defeating Guatemala 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-11, 25-12) to claim first place in Pool A. The winners held a huge margin of 15-4 in the blocking category. Verania Willis led Costa Rica with 21 points followed by Karen Cope with 17 and Mijal Hines with 10. For Guatemala Rut Gomez scored 15 points.
Angela Willis, captain of Costa Rica was sincere by saying they began the match too relaxed and “it caused the team to make unforced errors while Guatemala definitely studied us well”.
Pool Play Positions:
Pool A: 1. Costa Rica (2-0), 2. Guatemala (1-1), 3. El Salvador (0-2).
Pool B: 1. Nicaragua (3-0), 2. Honduras (2-1), 3. Panama (1-2), 4. Belize (0-3).
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