Honduras wins five-set battle with El Salvador

PANAMA CITY, Panama, August 29, 2014 – Honduras edged El Salvador 3-2 (18-25, 27-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-6) finishing with the hopes of the Salvadorians of winning the title and settling for the bronze medal in the U23 Central American Championship.

It was a great battle and the difference was the best service of the Hondurans establishing a 10-3 difference. The losers held a slight 9-7 margin in blocking.

EL Salvador finished with a 4-2 record and Honduras concluded with 2-4.

William Thompson led Honduras with 28 points, including three blocks, and Alex Padilla contributed 16 points in the victory. Rodrigo Chavez, captain of El Salvador, had a match-high 30 points in the loss.

The Salvadorans led the fourth set by a comfortable margin of eight points but were not able to close it opening the doors to Honduras who dominated in the fifth set.

Rony Martinez, coach of Honduras, said that was his real team that should play that way since the first day.

Gerson Ceron, assistant coach of El Salvador, commented on the excess of confidence of his team and pointed out to failures in the attacks.