St. Lucia wins another epic battle against Antigua & Barbuda

ST JOHNS, Antigua, August 30, 2019 - When it mattered most St. Lucia found the wherewithal to outlast Antigua Barbuda in a 5 set thriller (25-15, 22-25, 25-11, 24-26 and 15-11) in match #3 of the ECVA male U21 championship

When they were good they were really unstoppable winning by wide margins of 10, 14 and 4 in the decider. However the moment they relaxed Antigua/Barbuda took control and never allowed them to recover.

The inconsistent phenomena could not be explained by Coach Terry Verdant of St. Lucia. “To be honest I cannot explain exactly what happened in that game. I certainly think that we can play at a higher level than Antigua/Barbuda but some unknown reason they guys tended to drop their level of play and did not execute what they were supposed to do”, he complained.

Captain Remy Kernel agreed. “At many points in the game I was very frustrated I kept giving them good sets and the attackers were missing consistently. I really did not know what to do next”, he said.

Coach Olsen Joseph of Antigua had a different view.  “Our guys started nervously and once the nerves wore off we were able to nullify their attack and get some points of our own. We still have some areas to work on but we will figure it out before our next match”, he promised.

Antigua’s Captain - Tehari Harvey playing as a middle blocker led all scorers with 17 points. He got help from outside hitter Miguel Bourne who contributed 11 points with 9 spikes.

The St. Lucia team had a more rounded attack with outside hitters Fabio Lamontagne (14) and Florent Joshua (9) accounting for 23 points while David Zid contributed 10.

On the overall scoresheet Antigua/Barbuda led in spikes 15-11 but St. Lucia had the advantage in blocks 3 to 1 and in service points 7 to 5.

With that result St. Lucia remains undefeated and has created a pressure situation between St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua & Barbuda – the final match of pool play

St. Lucia’s next encounter is against St. Kitts & Nevis in a game they are expected to win on current form.