Nicaragua beats St. Lucia for first win at NORCECA U-20

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala, July 11, 2014. - Nicaragua beat St. Lucia 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-21) for their first win at the Women’s U-20 NORCECA Continental Championship at Teodoro Palacios Flores Gymnasium.

The straight set victory earned Nicaragua the right to play Martinique on Saturday for seventh place. St. Lucia finishes the continental championship in ninth place with 0-3 win-loss record.

The Central Americans topped with huge advantage in spiking by 30-13 and in service points by 9-1. St. Lucia was better in the blocking category by 10-1 despite their loss.

With 9 points apiece, Eliany Lopez, Eugenia Sequeira and Florelisa Smith were Nicaragua’s best scorers. Skye Mondesir led St. Lucia with 8 points.

“My team really didn’t play well, we were down most part of the second set and we can do much better. Our serves had many errors and the team’s attitude was low, but in the end the result was in our favor” said captain Florelisa Smith of Nicaragua.

“We finish the tournament with the conviction of coming back to an intercontinental competition and finish victorious. I am disappointed for the loss but my team never backed down with good sportsmanship” said captain Jedda Alcee of St. Lucia.

Coach Claudia Noguera explained that Nicaragua has the characteristic to fight harder against superior teams and when they face opponents who similar to them they make matches much harder “I had to motivate them every step of the way, the girls need to play strong from start to finish. St. Lucia did a better job in the second set and I hope they continue to grow”.

St. Lucia’s Coach Keam Charlery indicated “with Nicaragua we have similarity, our attacking was aggressive and their defense was better than ours. Nicaragua played better this time around”.