PHILLIPSBURG, St. Maarten October 16, 2022.- A noisy partisan home crowd could not save their team defeat at the hands of the more experienced Antigua and Barbuda 3-1 (25-12, 29-31, 25-21, 25-23) to take the bronze medal at the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association Senior Women’s Championship.

St. Maarten pushed their opponents in almost every set but came up short to finish in fourth place.

A well-rounded attack helped the Antiguan cause as middle blocker Peters posted 17 points, Carr chipped in with 13 and Payne 10. On the other side, it was only middle blocker Natalie who had double figures (10) for St. Maarten.

Antigua and Barbuda took control of the scoresheet leading 30 to 24 in attack, 11 to 8 in blocks and 15 to 9 in service points. Despite the win Antigua was guilty of committing too many errors, a total of 46 points of the 87 garnered by St. Maarten was attributed to errors.

This issue was not missed by coach Benjamin of Antigua, “we still have a problem with transition, and we committed far too many errors particularly with our serve. We definitely can do better than this brand of volleyball displayed here. We will now look to the future to integrate the youths into our program.”

Captain Simon committed to assist with that drive, “we can’t just throw the youth in the deep like that we have to guide them and blend them in, so as a more senior player I am all for that. Having said that I must say that we are disappointed that we only got as far as the bronze medal match. From my assessment this is a tournament”.

Coach Dimitri Beauperthuy was very upbeat in defeat, “although we lost to Antigua I am glad that the home crowd got a chance to see what we are building. In this squad, 6 players are still in High School and you saw how they fought out there, I am extremely proud of the effort and feel confident going for the future”.

His captain Meulens was ecstatic, “actually this is one of the reasons I was delighted to lead the team because of the number of young players in the squad. This augers well for the future of volleyball in St. Maarten as well as the Caribbean. It was exciting playing with them. I had a blast and although we are somewhat disappointed that we did not win the bronze we know for sure that we improved our standings and standard and that’s a win in my book.”