El Salvador downs Honduras in dramatic five sets

MANAGUA, Nicaragua, December 3, 2016. – El Salvador downed Honduras in five dramatic sets 3-2 (20-25, 25-21, 24-26, 25-8, 15-8) on day five of the AFECAVOL Women’s FIVB World Championship qualification tournament at Managua, Nicaragua.

Sets went back and forth without superiority from either squads; it was up to set four and especially set five that El Salvador managed to dominate Honduras. El Salvador’s six point advantage in set five (6-0) was impossible for Honduras to recover. This was Honduras second five setter match of the tournament.

El Salvador improves their win-loss record 1-2 and Honduras takes a hard loss to remain win-less 0-3.

El Salvador’s huge 60-41 margin in attacks took control of the actions, despite Honduras’ 7-3 lead in blocks and impressive 11-4 advantage in serves. There wasn’t too much difference in errors; El Salvador committed 39 and Honduras 42.

Outside hitter Adriana Flores of El Salvador topped all scorers with 24 points, 22 on kills; contributing to the winning cause were outside hitter Madeline Gonzales with 14 points and opposite Gabriela Funes with 12 points.  Opposite Cecille Johnson continues to be Honduras leading scorer with 18 points and middle blocker Mariajosse Diaz chipped in with 11 points

The competition closes on Sunday with Honduras (0-3) facing Panama (1-2) and El Salvador (1-2) against the home team.

“It was a dramatic victory, we were determined to finish on top and take the initiative from the beginning on set five. We played calm, not rushing things, one point at a time. We played similar, but they had difficulties receiving and we defended much better than our other matches” said Adriana Funes captain of El Salvador”.

Coach Dany Calderon of El Salvador indicated “matches against Honduras are always tough, I believe our pride doesn’t allow us to lose to them; this should be against all our opponents. Today my team played with a lot of energy, our receiving and our outside hitters were very effective; we limited our errors as well. Honduras has a lot of potential to perform well and in my opinion their results don’t reflect what they are capable of”.