Costa Rica
The home team will be looking for its seventh title while Guatemala has never won the gold. The two teams played in pool play round with Costa Rica winning in four sets.
Costa Rica 3, El Salvador 0
Defending champions Costa Rica defeated El Salvador in straight sets (25-19, 25-11, 25-10) to advance to the gold medal match. Costa Rica had 1the superiority in blocks by 8-2 and a huge advantage in service points of 11-4.
Verania Willis was the best scorer for Costa Rica with 14 points; Angela Willis contributed with 12 and Karen Cope with 11.
Angela Willis, captain of Costa Rica said: “We aren’t playing at our best, we got a little desperate with El Salvador’s good defense, but the one who makes fewer mistakes wins. Tomorrow we hope to play better and win the gold”.
Guatemala 3, Nicaragua 1
Guatemala prevailed over Nicaragua 3-1 (25-14, 25-18, 20-25, 25-23) and moved into the final match of the women’s tournament Guatemala’s consistent blocking with 11-8 advantage stopped Nicaragua’s intentions of advancing to the gold medal match. Rut Gomez produced a match high with 26 points for Guatemala and Diana Arias chipped in with 11. Nicaraguan siblings Heidy and Hellen Traña topped with 17 and 16 points respectively.
Diana Arias captain of Guatemala commented: “It didn’t take us by surprise that Nicaragua took advantage of our loss of concentration, with team effort we were able to correct our reception and win”.
Panama 3, Honduras 0
Panama finished in fifth place after beating Honduras 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-15) in the final classification round. Panamanians presented a much more dedicated squad and finished the tournament with a 2-2 mark. Joanna Arroyo scored a total of 17 points while Hashlyn Cuero finished with 13 for the winners.
“Our preparation for the games weren’t the ideal, we have a natural condition and experience and that’s why we play the way we do. For this match we were ready for the revenge,” indicated Joanna Arroyo, captain of Panama.
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