Dominica sees off St. Vincent on route to semifinals

ST JOHNS, Antigua, December 6, 2014 - Dominica earned a berth in the semifinals when they defeated St. Vincent and the Grenadines in a testy 4 set match 3-1 (25-14, 25-22, 24-26 and 25-18). The match was the first of the quarterfinal matches of the East Caribbean Volleyball Association Senior Men Championship.

 St. Vincent and the Grenadines showed steady improvement and played their best match of the tournament so far but in the end the Dominicans used their experience to outlast them.

Dominica won the battle of the spikes 46 to 36 but team St. Vincent and the Grenadines held the edge in blocking 13 to 11 while Dominica poured in 5 aces to St. Vincent and the Grenadines 2.

On the individual level Cassius Franklyn, outside Hitter for Team St. Vincent and The Grenadines, was the highest scorer for his team with 19 points and he found an aide in Akeme Franklyn who contributed 11. For team Dominica, outside hitter Lincoln Riviere led all scorers with 21 points made up of 16 kills, 4 blocks and 1 service ace. David Toussaint also an Outside Hitter added 12 points to the winning cause.

Dominica will meet Antigua in the semifinal while St. Vincent and the Grenadines will play off for the 5^th position

“I am happy that our guys were able to show incremental improvement in their overall play and certainly our blocking stepped up and we overall floor movement was much improved. However we still making too many errors at crucial times”, said Brain Burke Coach of St Vincent. Over 33 % of the points Dominica garnered were due to opponents’ error.

Captain Cassius Franklyn was somewhat disappointed with his team. “We proved that we are just as good as them but our level of play rose and faded too often”, he complained.

The Captain of the Dominica team (Ray Robinson) had a different view.  “I think we lost focus after winning the first game easily and we figured it would be smooth sailing and as a result relaxed too much in games 2 and 3. I must commend St. Vincent though as they raised the level of their game. Once we regained our composure all the aspects of the game came together nicely to give us victory in the end” he surmised.

Coach of the Dominica team, Jeffrey Edmund, was in a pensive mood. “I will agree that we did not hold our intensity throughout this game and this will have to change when we meet Antigua in the semifinals”, he noted.