Curacao defeats Barbados to seal NORCECA Championship spot   

St. Croix, Virgin Islands August 7, 2016 - Curacao improved to a perfect 2-0 record in Group A when they defeated Barbados in straight sets and qualified to the second round qualifier to the 2018 FIVB World Championship at the Ronald Charles Basketball Arena. 

Following a straight sets win over Turks & Caicos in the tournament, Curacao returned to the same venue less than 24 hours later and secured a controlled 25-11, 25-21, 25-14 victory to be certain of a top two finish in the four-team round-robin series to advance to the Second Round of the 2018 NORCECA World Championship Zonal Qualifiers.

The captain of Barbados, Dee-Ann Smith suffered a tough loss with her team, but seemed very pleased with their performance. She said “I think that we maximized on our strengths really well, we knew what our weaknesses from before and focusing on them is the only thing I would do different. We had a really good opponent, they were very loud and lively and I loved that about them.” Being that she was essentially okay with their performance from the game last night against Virgin Islands, but today she thinks that her team did an outstanding job.

When asked about the process of consistency during the match when it comes to keeping the spirit alive, Curaçao’s captain, Christine Anthony, stated “that’s how we practice, we try to keep energized and happy during practice so that it stays that way during the game.” Being that service racked up a lot of points for Curaçao during the game the captain said that “we train with a lot of practice games so everyone gets a chance to practice their service, but even though service gave us a lot of points, we made mistakes as well and we would want to perfect that for the game against the U. S. Virgin Islands.”

Coach began his statement with paying respect to the team Barbados. Curaçao’s coach stated “all my respect to Barbados because that was the first time in more than 16 years that we beat Barbados. For us it’s something, we do have to prepare better because I know after a good 3 years we will have a strong Barbados.” He stated that Coach Brathwaithe, his friend for over 20 years, have an exceptionally young and strong team. “We are very happy and proud with the performance with our girls because they are performing well.” When asked if his team’s performance were executed as plan, he stated “ They played well but still we have some small mistakes, and against a stronger team, the mistakes can be very costly.”

Being that Barbados has a young team but performed very well against a challenging team such as Curaçao, Coach Andrew Brathwaithe was very pleased with how they executed the game today. He stated that “there’s no negative towards the outcome of the game, both teams did a very good job today and the difference with this game is our serve receive, that is our weakness. But we do know what we have to build on. We perfected on blocking and I'm happy with the performance of my team because we did a much better job today.”

With paying respect to the Curaçao team, Coach Brathwaite is also proud of the fact that regional volleyball is on the rise. He mentioned that “Instead of one or two countries being dominant, there are more competition. We know where our volleyball is going, and when you see CAZOVA's volleyball, you will see an outstanding level of play, and that’s what it is about. I'm really please with the atmosphere on the court today and the development of volleyball.” Being that the both coaches share a friendship, they are also pleased to share this moment in volleyball history together.