St Lucia pressure St Maarten in rehearsal for the gold medal 

GROS ISLET, St Lucia, August 13, 2017 - St Lucia extended their record to 3-0 win/loss, with a polished 3-0 ( 25-19, 26-24, 25-19 ) trumping  at the expense of St Maarten in the men’s Group D of the NORCECA Zone of the FIVB  World Championships Qualifiers  round for teams in the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA),  at the Beausejour Indoor Facility.

In the last match of the preliminary phase, the two previewed each other as they are set to meet again in the final.

For a change, St Lucia’s top scorer was not Joseph Clercent, but Middle Blocker - Tevin St Jean, who tallied 12.  For St Maarten, Shaquille Rombley, a Middle Blocker, had 10 points.

St Lucia’s dominance was exemplified in Attacks, which they won 29 to 16, and bossed the Blocks 12-5. But St Maarten accrued fewer errors than St Lucia.

Errors incurred by St Maarten were 32, while St Lucia had 38.

A highly optimistic Head Coach of St Lucia- Terry Verdant, expects his team to be again dismissing St Maarten by the same 3-0 margin.

“We will be playing with the same high intensity in final and I anticipate another 3-0 win”, Verdant boasted.

Unfazed by the defeat, Head Coach of the St Maarten outfit, Dimitri Beauperthy, conveyed that it was a tactical move in preparation for the grand finale.

“This game did not matter, as we were already in the final …   The final is what matters”, Beauperthy quipped.  

“We used some of the fellas who don’t start and it showed that they are as good as those who normally start … We were preserving the energy with some of our players and we also got a feel of the play of the St Lucians and the speed at which they play and we got to see them”, the St Maarten Head Coach reasoned.