Youthful Haiti too much for Suriname in quarterfinals

COUVA, Trinidad, July 7, 2017 - Debutants Haiti continued their impressive run in the 16th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Men's Championship with a hard tough 3-1 (20-25, 25-20, 25-21, 33-31) triumph in two hours and four minutes over Suriname in their quarter at the National Cycling Centre.

Third placed finishers in their round-robin Pool E series behind ten-time champions Barbados and Jamaica, the youthful and shorter Haitians survived being out blocked at the net, 5-15 to hold the edge on spikes 52-50 while committing a crucial less errors, 28 to their opponents, 43.

For Haitit, Leslee Alexandre led three players in double-figure scoring with 13 points while Olson Lebrun got 11 and Steneley Mesidor, ten.

Suriname, meanwhile got a tournament high 26 points from Gino Robert Naarden, which included 25 spikes while Keven Sporkslede chipped in with 15 and Zefanio Breinburg 12 in the loss, despite their 15-5 dominance on blocks, and slim 4-3 advantage on aces, 

Casey Foe-A-Man, captain of the Suriname said his team was up for the ball but was just not good enough on the night.

"I think both teams came to play, but you can see that Haiti wanted it more than us and credit to them."

Irvens Benjamin, Haiti's captain said his team came ready to play for a spot in the semifinal against  good Suriname team and they pulled off a good win.

'We played at another level tonight because we are a short team and need to play quickly which e did."

Getrouw Very's Suriname's coach echoed his captain views saying it was just a matter of Haiti wanting the win more than his team, and that made the big difference.

Yves Larrieux, Haiti coach while happy for them win was quick to state that his team was a very young one and continue to play without fear.

"We are young, happy and a confident group of players."

With the win, Haiti set up a semifinal meeting with host and defending champions Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday night, while Suriname will meet Jamaica in the fifth place playoff also on Saturday.        

                                                                              
The two semifinal winners of the Second Round of CAZOVA 2018 FIVB World Championship Qualifiers will qualify to the NORCECA Continental Championship, where five berths to the 2018 FIVB World Championship in Bulgaria and Italy will be up-for-grabs at the competition.

At the NORCECA Continental Championship, the teams qualified to date are USA, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico.

They will be joined by the top two qualified teams from the tournaments of the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) and CAZOVA plus Guatemala and Dominican Republic who qualified from the tournament held in AFECAVOL