El Salvador finishes fifth with victory over Barbados

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, August 3, 2014 - El Salvador finished the NORCECA Boys’ Under-21 Continental Championship in fifth place with a 25-21, 21-25, 25-18, 25-22 win over Barbados on Sunday at Palacios de los Deportes.

El Salvador had lost to Barbados in the pool play stage, but this time things went better for the hosts.

El Salvador took advantage of Barbados's amount of mistakes as they scored 42 points on Barbados errors while committing 18. El Salvador dominated the blocks (8-5) and Barbados led in kills 58-44 and aces 5-2.

El Salvador’s Samuel Valdez led all scorers with 28 points on 24 attacks and three blocks. Mauricio Rivas added 13 points, all in attacks. Carlos Cyrus and Jabarry Goodridge registered 18 and 17 points, respectively, for Barbados with both players scoring16 points on kills.

Quotes

Samuel Valdez, El Salvador’s Captain: “Our goal was clear: To be the best in Central and we delivered. Now we will look for opportunities to participate in other tournaments like the Pan American Cup. We finished behind the NORCECA powers like Cuba, United States and Canada, and it shows the Afecavol’s progress”.

Ricardo Rivera, El Salvador’s Coach: “I think the tournament was very successful. We gained much more because we wanted to be the best in Central America. We finished ahead of the islands and Mexico. Now we must keep working and growing.”

Ammuniki Wood, Barbados’ Captain: “We could play better. We go back home with a very good experience. We want to stay at these levels and we must keep working.”

John Stuart, Barbados’ Coach: “El Salvador deserved to win, they played better. It was a good experience and will help the progress of our players.”