Volleyball - Bronze for Team BVI [Photoslide Included]
t
Montserrat ended the tournament without winning a set, as they were beaten by 3-0 margins in all four matches that they played.
By virtue of their third place finish, the Territory joins Dominica and St Kitts in securing berths to the second round of the qualifiers slated for 2013.
Neville Brathwaite Jr., Captain of the BVI team, was honest in his appraisal of his team’s performances. “Our game needs to pick up as a team. The tournament gave us as a team on the court from the coach’s perspective, to run some of the systems; we were unsuccessful in some, but successful in seeing what adjustments we need to make,” Brathwaite said.
Unfazed by the heavy defeats, Captain of the Montserrat team, Collis Rankin is taking away the positives from their experience.
“For us, it was a learning process, we picked up a lot of stuff, the level we need to play at, we are not there yet, therefore, we understand the more we play, we will get better,” Rankin summed up his team’s sojourn in the tournament.
Dominica conquered St Kitts and Nevis 3-2 (25-22, 19-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13) to claim the top spot in the First Round of the NORCECA Group, Men’s Pool F of the 2014 FIVB World Championships Qualifiers, here at the Multi-Purpose Sporting Complex.
In a carbon copy of their preliminary round meeting, Dominica won the first set, but St Kitts and Nevis clawed back to win the second and third sets. Dominica secured the fourth, to send the encounter into the decisive fifth set.
In the process, Dominica kept their unstained record intact, held over from the preliminary phase, in which they won all three matches.
A bubbly Jeffrey Edmonds, Coach of the triumphant Dominica team said gleefully that most of the plans came together on the court.
“In the main, we stuck to our game plan which was to keep the St Kitts and Nevis offence at bay, especially, Shawn (Seabrooks), and it worked,” Jeffrey said.
Coach of the St Kitts team, Kyle McIntosh agreed with Edmonds that there were some lapses during the latter part of the match and blamed a few tactical hiccups which cost them the match and eventually, the gold medal.
The Kittian coach though, felt that the title went to the team which wanted it most and who fought the hardest.
Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands emerged as advancers from Pool F, and head to the second round.
Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis have a shot now at the ECVA Finals, which are carded for St Lucia in September of this year.
Dominica’s outside hitter, David Toussaint won the award of Most Valuable Player of the Tournament with Dominica’s Julian Seraphine named as Best Digger as well as the Best Server.
Ronald Bruno took the Best Spiker award, whilst St Kitts/Nevis player’s St Clair Hodge, Shawn Seabrooks and Jason Liburd were Best Receiver, Best Server and Best Blocker respectively
Another Kittian, Kenroy Percival pouched the award for the Best Libero and the other individual award was snapped up by the British Virgin Islands’ Norville Brathwaite, who was the Best Setter.
[slideshow]
8 Responses to “Volleyball - Bronze for Team BVI [Photoslide Included]”