Nicaragua adds fourth straight victory  

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 13, 2017.- Nicaragua added their fourth straight victory in a row after defeating Panama 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-21) on day four of the women’s Volleyball tournament at the 2017 Managua Central American Games at Alexis Argüello sport complex.

The hosts Nicaragua celebrated their victory over Panama with tears of joy as they stand on solid grounds to move straight ahead to capture the gold medal match of the Games. Panama held the advantage before closing sets one and two but Nicaragua’s clever spikers and tough serves took matters under control.

Nicaragua stands with 4-0 win-loss record and 20 points, and Panama has 1-3 and seven points. 

Nicaragua prevailed on 7-2 aces and scored on 24 Panamanian errors, while limiting theirs to 17. Panama held a 38-36 margin in kills and 11-9 in blocks.

Hellen Traña led Nicaragua’s balance offense with 13 points. Lolette Rodriguez, Heidy Traña and Claudia Noguera registered 10 points apiece. Middle blocker Angela Evans of Panama scored a match-high of 17 points.

On day five of actions, Nicaragua (4-0) faces Guatemala (2-1) and Panama (1-3) rests.

Setter of Nicaragua Lolette Rodríguez: “We are solidly moving in to win the gold medal; we are very excited because we knew that this was a very important result. Panama always plays with strength and their blocking is really effective; our performance was calm and we always followed our coaches’ instructions. We hope to do the same in our last two matches”.

Best scorer of Panama Angela Evans: “Individually we play very well, we are in good physical condition and we all are capable of playing well, but we are lacking team effort, we need to play together to win”.