Antigua/Barbuda remains undefeated with win over Anguilla

St. JOHNS, Antigua, September, 10, 2016 –    Antigua/Barbuda and Anguilla exhibited a keen and hard fought game in match number 5 of the of the ECVA World Cup Qualifying tournament Group A men. In the end Antigua/Barbuda came away victors in four sets: - 25-21, 17-25, 25-13 and 25 -23

The victory secured Antigua/Barbuda’s berth into the finals and they maintained an unbeaten record in round robin play. They now await the result of Anguilla versus Montserrat match to determine the other finalist.

Throughout the game Collin Thomas lived up to expectations and carried the attack for the home team. He ended with 23 points, the most by any player. Those points were made up of 20 successful Spikes from 48 attempts as well as two Blocks and an Ace. Left handed Adrian Constant chipped in with 15 points of his own. Anguilla key offensive weapon Sherwin Richardson also scored big with 19 points and Calvin Samuel contributed 11.

On the team score sheet Antigua led in all the scoring categories. 45 to 34 in Spikes, 11 to 8 in Blocks and 4 to 1 in Serves.

Coach Jason Liburd was not too perturbed during the post-match interview. “These matches always come down to the little things and in the end we made more errors than they did. We had a game plan going into the game and for the most part it worked as we forced them to make some changes That was advantageous to us but in the end our mistakes came at crucial points in the game and they cost us the match”, he noted.

His opposite number Carl Williams did not reveal much emotion in his assessment of the game. “It was very good game, we expected the fight; we were prepared for it as has been the case in previous tournaments. However we did most things well except for our blocking and this is an area we want to improve upon in the finals. We made some assessment of the Anguillans during the tournament and during our game tonight and we will be ready for them once they make it through to the finals”, he surmised.

Anguilla is in a must win situation when they meet Montserrat in the last game of round robin matches. A loss would mean that three teams would be tied and will have to be untangled mathematically before deciding who plays the gold medal match against Antigua.