Antigua & Barbuda book semifinal berth with victory over BVI

LA BORIE, Grenada, November 3,   2018 – Antigua & Barbuda faced little resistance on their way to booking a semifinal spot when they brushed aside BVI in quarterfinal play of the ECV Men’s competition in straight sets - 25 -13, 25 -22 and 25-14.

BVI gave it their best shot particularly in the second set when the scores were close but the effort was not good enough as Antigua forged ahead at will.

For Antigua/Barbuda, Constant, Davis and James led the scoresheet with 37 points among them. From the opposite position Adrian Constant had 11 Spikes and added 5 service points for a game high 16 points. Middle Blocker Cairon Davis contributed 11 and Jamarie James chipped in with 10 points as an outside hitter

Antigua/Barbuda was unmatched in two of the team scoring categories. In Spikes they led 39 to 12 and in Serves they enjoyed a 17-3 advantage. In the blocking department however BVI led 6 to 1. Antigua/Barbuda was careful enough only to give up 18 errors while benefiting from 28 donated by BVI.

Coach Payne of the BVI finally admitted that his team was not up to the task. “This simply means that our programme in the BVI has to change. This involves recruitment and consistent training programme. We have to get back to where we were in the early 2000’s or we won’t be able to compete at these competitions”, he stated

Antigua/Barbuda’s coach- Carl Williams gave a good assessment of what went on. “A large part of this game is mental preparation and execution. It was difficult to motivate my team. Once they get in the mindset that the team is weaker than them, then they abandon the game plan and go off into their own little bad habits. So our task today was to keep them focus and stick with the game plan and apart from the second set everything went well”, he concluded. 

Antigua is set to play against Grenada for the right to play in the finals on Sunday 4^th while BVI has been relegated to play for bottom positions.