Barbados dominates opening set against Nicaragua

Marigot, St. Martin August 10 2013 - Team Barbados poured in a dominating performance against Nicaragua winning in straight sets (25-13, 25-15 and 25-23)  in the opening encounter of the Men's World Cup Qualifiers group I.

In the first two sets  Barbados made it look too easy chalking up several scoring unanswered runs until they met with some resistance in the third set.

Barbados led Nicaragua in the blocking department 13 -4  and in attack they were also superior leading 34 to 23.  Individually, it was Barbados' Jabarry Goodridge with 10 points that led all scorers. Those points included 7 spikes and 2 blocks. For the losing team Tito Valdivia was the highest scorer with 9 points.

Coach Ledger Niles of Barbados believed that his superiority in size at the net gave his team the advantage.

"When we analyzed their team we realized that they were not very strong in defense and so our plan was to get early control of the game at the net and we did just that. Our blocking in particular worked well for us as it was identified as an area for improvement from our last tournament. Hence  we are very satisfied with the fact that we have taken the opening game in straight sets and look forward to a key game later today", he reported.

Coach Martinez of Nicaragua felt that it was a learning experience for his young charges. "From this game we learnt a lot about the level and style so play of Caribbean team. So our aim now is to make adjustments going forward to deal with this type of situation. we have to put this defeat behind us and think about what lies ahead", he said.

Barbados next meet Bahamas in a key match  at 7 pm this evening while St. Marten plays Nicaragua in the curtains game.