Trinidad&Tobago Earns Win Over Costa Rica
Marc Honore led Trinidad & Tobago with 17 points, while captain Nolan Tash contributed 13 points. Costa Rica was paced by Richard Smith Hall’s 11 points.
Trinidad & Tobago out-blocked Costa Rica 11-3 in the victory. Both teams committed a significant amount errors as Trinidad & Tobago had 26 and Costa Rica 22.
With the victory, Trinidad & Tobago advances to the quarterfinal round on Thursday after finishing Pool A with a 1-2 record.
Costa Rica finished Pool A with a 0-3 record and will face an undetermined opponent on Friday during the Classification 5-8 round.
“Today was a better day for us on the court,” Trinidad & Tobago captain Nolan Tash.
“We are grateful for the victory. Costa Rica kept us honest and kept the competitive level up. The last time we played them, we won. We didn’t want that to change.”
“I just want to say it was a tough game for us against Costa Rica,” Trinidad & Tobago Coach Gideon Dickson said.
“If you look at these scores, you will see that although we won the game, Costa Rica increased in terms of points as compared to last time we played. They are improving and we are also improving.”
“We lacked a lot in our concentration,” Costa Rica captain Pablo Zumbado.
“We were hoping to play better. We lacked the rhythm and pace we were looking for. The block is big part of the game that did not go as well as we planned.”
“One area we are trying to improve is the serve receive,” Costa Rica Coach Cesar Salas said. “We don’t get to face serving as strong in our zone. I think since the last NORCECA we are improving. We’re going to keep working hard. These tournaments are few and far between, but they are great opportunities to improve. We’re going to keep learning and improving.”
