Anguilla pushes pass Montserrat to the finals of ECVA World Cup Qualifiers

St. JOHNS, Antigua, September, 10, 2016 –    Anguilla earned a berth to play in the finals of the  ECVA World Cup Qualifying tournament Group A men when they romped home in straight sets (25-15, 25-15 and 25 -18) over Montserrat.

The pre-tournament predictions held true as Anguilla like Antigua proved that they were just too much for their opponents.

Anguilla dominated all departments and was particularly strong at the net using Aldus Frank to block and attacking from the flanks using Calvin Samuel to great effect. In doing so they established huge leads that gave Coach Jason Liburd the liberty to rest key players for long periods. Leading scorer for Anguilla (Sherwin Richardson) played only the first game.

Coach Jason Liburd admitted that this was a deliberate ploy. We knew from the onset that this game would be ours for the taking so we choose the opportunity to rest a couple of key players and allowed the youngsters to get their feet wet. It worked for us as we were still able to win in three sets and have some reserves stored for the finals.

Our #4 (Calvin Samuel) is a key player too but he is young and well energized so we have no fear that he will be ready for later”, he surmised.

Calvin Samuel ended up leading all scorers with 12 points 10 of which came from Spikes. Frank Aldus was close behind with 11 points comprising 4 Aces, 5 Spikes and 2 Blocks.

On the other side, Montserrat was led by Encousie Wilson with 8 points and he had support from Captain Dennison Daley with 7.

Assistant Coach Daley who has dual roles had bright smiles at the end of the game. “As you can see I have a smile on my face. I am smiling because the young guys have showed me they now ready. I can definitely say that our young setter has improved tremendously from the start of the tournament and he is now spreading the ball nicely. Our hitters have loosened up; it is just for us now to get accustomed to competition rhythm and sustained high level of play for longer periods. Later today we have one last chance in the bronze medal match and I have a feeling that we are on to something good here” he noted.

Montserrat will meet St. Eustatius in the bronze medal game while Antigua/Barbuda clashes with Anguilla in the finals. Both games will be played late on Sunday 11^th September.