Colombia too much for Costa Rica at CACG of Barranquilla

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, July 20, 2018. - Colombia dominated Costa Rica 3-0 (25-14, 25-9, 25-7) in pool B of opening day of the 2018 Barranquilla XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games in Humberto Perea Coliseum.

The host Colombia was too much for Costa Rica, controlling the contest with effective serves from start to finish and with little resistance from their Central American counterpart.

Colombia aced their way to prevail 9-0, with huge 39-19 advantage in spikes and 8-2 in blocks. Colombia scored on 19 Costa Rican errors, limiting their own to 9.

Wing spiker Amanda Coneo topped Colombia with 10 points, while wing spiker Giselle Perez contributed with 9 points and opposite Veronica Pasos registered 8 points. Opposite player Daniela Vargas scored 5 points for Costa Rica.

On Saturday, Colombia (1-0) will play against Trinidad and Tobago (0-1) while Costa Rica (0-1) faces Puerto Rico (1-0).

Captain of the hosts, María Alejandra Marín indicated her team had a solid debut “despite our fatigue from the Pan American Cup and three intense months of practice, we reached our goal. Colombia has to play well always, it doesn’t matter our opponent, and we were expecting to win tonight”.

Tannia Carazo captain of Costa Rica expressed her optimism “I believe we have much to improve, our team is very young but very talented. We must practice more together because Daniela Vargas just made the team. I know we will improve”.

Brazilian Antonio Rizola coach of Colombia, who proudly says to be a Colombian, “everybody played, we are at home, we played gracefully, the spectators participated, we played for them. It is very important to begin like this, nevertheless the opponent we’re facing, and our concentration must be good always and respecting the other team. We played each set better and better, I liked it”.

Head coach of Costa Rica, César Salas said “this wasn’t the result we expected; there are sever factors: many unforced errors in reception, my players did not follow instructions given the way Colombia was serving and we can’t hide that there are powerful. We had a plan, we practiced it, but they didn’t follow it a hundred percent; we saw Colombia during the Pan Am Cup and we knew it was a hard match but with a better battle from our side”.