Belize women off to winning start in second round World
qualifiers
WILLEMSTAD, Curacao, May 11, 2013 - Tichele Solis was one of
three players to score in double-digits as little known Belize
made a winning start to the second round of the 2014 FIVB
Women’s World Championship NORCECA Pool J, outplaying Antigua&
Barbuda in four sets (25-11, 18-25, 25-17, 25-13) in one hour,
26 minutes.
It was a dominant effort by Belize which outscored its opponent
on spikes 38-20; blocks 8-6 and service aces, 13-5, all backed
up by setter, Tanesha Encalada, who accounted for 24 of the
team’s 25 perfect sets.
Solis led the way for the Central Americans with 17 points,
while Shantell Arnold tallied 15, including five blocks and four
aces, and captain Sherylee Young-Thornton, 12. For Antigua &
Barbuda, Naheemah Wilson was the lone player to reach
double-figures with 11 points.
Commenting on her Antigua & Barbuda team’s performance, Giselle
Azar said she was pleased with the effort of her team-mates
despite the loss.
“We made a few bad passes that cost us in the end but all-in-all
I think the team played well, Azar said. “I must also say
congratulations to Belize for giving us a good fight and we now
have to go back to the drawing board and work harder for our
next match.”
Young-Thornton said her team’s intention was to come out and
play with a lot of energy from the first point and even though
it may have worked against them in the second set by giving its
opponent with easy points, the final result was what mattered
most.
She also praised her team’s serving effort which she said was a
key in setting up a lot of easy points.
“We knew we had to serve well and our girls did just that and we
are very happy for the win and looking forward to improving on
our little mistakes for the second match,” she said.
Antigua & Barbuda coach, Esron Gittens pointed out that coming
into the match his team wasn’t aware of how tall some of the
Belize middle players were and most of their plays were centered
on them.
Gittens added, “The service game of Belize caught us by surprise
as well it had us in some trouble and if you don’t receive well
and pass you cannot create points for yourself, so we have to do
better in that department.”
An elated Allan Sharp, coach of Belize was full of praise for
his team’s serving which he said was a key to the win.
“We knew Antigua & Barbuda was missing a few key players so we
wanted to put them under pressure from early and we managed to
do that.
“Our level of play fell off somewhat in the second set, but we
regrouped and took the next two sets to get the win. |