Barbados secures a final berth with victory over St. Martin

Marigot, St. Martin,  August 11, 2013 -  Barbados earned the right to play in the finals of the  FIVB Men World Cup Qualifier group I when they defeated hosts St. Martin 3-0 (25-22,25-18,25-20 ).

Clearly, it was the best effort by St. Martin over three games but it was still not good enough for victory as everything went Barbados' way when it mattered.

Coach Ludger Niles of Barbados admitted to playing a very strategic game with the finals in mind.  "With Bahamas going to five sets with Nicaragua, we insisted upon rotating the players to give key players a rest for later. The support players did a very good job in building momentum and collecting points that St. Martin  just couldn't match," he intimated.

Finally there was a smile on the face of Jean Luc Lezin- St. Martin's Coach. "I am happy that the players showed improvement over the tournament but we need to play like this all the time, not just in the final preliminary game. We did make some changes in order to save some energy for the third place game but overall we still need to work on our unforced errors," he reported.

Rotilio Richardson was the highest scorer for the game with 18 points comprising of 12 spikes and 6 blocks all in a losing cause. Fabian Cox led all Barbadian scorers with 12 points (10 spikes and 2 blocks) while Jabarry Goodridge chipped in with 8.

On the team level Barbados had  42 points from spikes to 28 by St. Martin. They also outscored St. Martin in service points (5-2) but St. Martin won in the blocks category  11-8.

So the finals are all set for Sunday evening with Bahamas and Barbados clashing while  a rematch between Nicaragua and  St. Martin will settle the third place.