Bahamas survives a grueling five setter against Nicaragua

Marigot, St. Martin,  August 11, 2013 -  Tournament favourites Bahamas was made to put in a workmanlike performance in order to overcome a gritty Nicaraguan team in five sets :- 19-25, 25- 20,  25-19,19 -25 and  15 - 6. The game was the last preliminary match for both teams in the FIVB Men's World Cup Qualifiers group I.

The win maintained a perfect record for Bahamas and secured their place in the finals while Nicaragua was relegated to play for third place.

Princ Tanique Wilson literally carried the attack for team Bahamas with 32 points. He had 28 spikes and 4 service aces. The next best scorer for Bahamas was Byron Ferguson with 10 points. On the losing side Alvarado Martinez contributed 17 points as the team's highest scorer.

Bahamas outscored Nicaragua 56-41 in the spike category and garnered  7 service points to Nicaragua's 2 while the blocking category was fairly even at 8-7 in favour of Bahamas.

"Coming into this game we knew that it was going to be a dog fight as the Central Americans thrive on defense and in the early game in particular they were able to play better defense than us," reported captain Pinc Tanique  Wilson. Coach Raymond Wilson agreed and added that it was pure determination that led to the final separation in the 5th set. "It was beginning to look a bit risky if we lost to Nicaragua and so we resorted to our strengths and safety and picked up an unmatched momentum," he noted.

Coach of the Nicaraguan team commended his players for the courageous display."We are happy that we could have been very equal to a very strong team from this region. I think we  lost focus in the third set in particular and they never really gave us a chance in the fifth," he admitted. "All we can do now is give it our all in the third place playoff game," he concluded.