Castries July 1st 2010– The first and second seed teams were upstaged over the weekend at the Eastern Caribbean Senior Women’s Volleyball Tournament which took place in Saint Lucia.
In the quarter finals, top seed and defending champions Saint Lucia suffered a shocking defeat to eventual winners St. Kitts and Nevis 3-2 while second seed Antigua and Barbuda, who trampled St. Kitts and Nevis in the preliminary round, fell to Dominica 3-0.
Florian Combie, coach of the dethroned tournament favourites Saint Lucia hinted that complacency was a factor in his team’s demise: “We have to get used to the idea sometimes that even if you might be the better team, there is always the possibility of loosing when a team will somehow just raise their game to unexpected levels. That happened in our game. St. Kitts and Nevis played very good defense and we were not able to respond.”
Champions St. Kitts and Nevis endured hard fought ladies volleyball final on Sunday evening before prevailing over Dominica. Lead by tournament MVP Brenda Allen (left of photo) the ladies from the Basseterre staved off a commendable challenge to win 27-13, 27-29,25-19,19-25,18-16.
Although happy for the upset victory over the home team, coach Steadroy Collins says his squad still needs to work much harder on its defense “I think my team could have played better. Their level of performance was really high for the first set. Then it fluctuated for the rest of the game. We lapsed on defense a lot.”
The victorious run by St. Kitts and Nevis has earned them a spot for the 2011 Norseca championships in Tijuanna Mexico.
Dominica’s coach Albert Loblack commended the loosing finalists for their efforts throughout the tournament but added that his team needs to regain it’s killer instinct. Dominica will engage Trinidad and Tobago, hosts Surinam and other countries at the COZOVA championships later this year.
Hosts Saint Lucia won the 3rd place playoff against Antigua and Barbuda 3-2. Harris Lewis, Coach of Antigua and Barbuda is suggesting that several of his players had difficulty coping with the lack of sufficient ventilation at the indoor playing facility. Similar sentiments were shared by other teams. In response, Brian Louise who heads the Saint Lucia Volleyball Association says concerns regarding the conditions at the venue for the recent regional tournament have been noted.
St. Lucia’s Sancha Isidore was awarded Best Reciever, Best Libero and Best Digger. Emma Edgar also of Saint Lucia was awarded Best Spiker. Dominica’s Elizabeth Joseph and Annmarie Xavier won Best Setter and Best Scorer respectively. Jacklyn Hodge of French St. Martin was awarded Best Blocker the Best Server trophy was presented to Carolyn Christian of Antigua and Barbuda and Brenda Allen of champions St. Kitts and Nevis was awarded the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
The Eastern Caribbean Senior Female Volleyball Tournament is part of the OECS Sports Calendar.
The rankings for the 2011 ECVA championships will feature defending champs St Kitts and Nevis as the top seed, followed by Dominica, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda , Anguilla, French St. Marten, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Good Job ladies, Keep up the good work.
Good job, ladies! You make us proud. Can’t wait for the next opportunity!
Congratulations to the women of Dominica on the position you placed and wish you all best of luck in Surinam. To the champions St. Kitts and Nevis you make the caribbean proud next year , we will be supporting you.
On another note, I think that women playing volleyball in Dominica are not given a fair chance to prove themselves for a pick on the National Team. When the coach of the team is calling 3/4 of the women on his local team for practice and only choosing 13 persons for trial that is not fair. I would like the Association to address the criteria for selection to the national team and if it is right to pick persons who have not been playing in the local league for trials.
I do not think it is fair and that is a demotivation to the young players coming up.
Congratulations ladies. I know you all can do better. You’ll know you just have to work harder next time.