Blake, Honore rally T&T men past Suriname

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, August 4, 2014 - Simon Blake and Portugal-based Marc-Anthony Honore tallied a combined 32 points as host T&T overcame a first set loss and 39 errors to rally past Suriname 18-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-17 in their Pool B opener of the 15^th Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association Championship (CAZOVA) Tournament at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.

Blake, led all scorers in the match with 17 points, punctuated by 13 kills and three aces while Honore contributed 15 points, made up of 11 kills and three blocks in the entertaining contest which lasted one hour and 40 minutes to conclude the first day of competition.

T&T topped their opponents in all key aspects of the match. They included 48-36 on spikes, 10-6 on blocks and 6-2 on service aces.

Suriname, which started brightly before fading had a team-high 16 points from Keven Sporklede while Antoine Vliet and Clyde Fraser got eight points apiece.

Following the loss, Suriname coach Michael Ong-A-Kwie admitted his players were not consistent enough.

“We started off very good and won the first set with good serving and attacks, but then as our game dropped T&T lifted its game with stronger serving of their own while our reception faded, which resulted in too many easy points for them.

Roberto Joval, Suriname captain echoed the views of his coach adding that his team lost focus in the second set while T&T grew stronger.

“T&T then produced stronger serves and our defence was not able to pass properly and caused a lot of mistakes by us, which cost us the match.

T&T coach, Gideon Dickson was a relieved man to see his team dig itself out of a difficult situation.

“We knew coming into the tournament all the matches were not going to be easy as was evident against Suriname.

“It was a very interesting encounter by both teams and while we are delighted with the win, we know there is a lot of work still to be done as we go along in the tournament.

Nolan Tash added, “As a team we are happy to get a win to start up with especially against strong Suriname team and this will help with our confidence. Overall we did not started off well as we committed too many serving and attacking errors. However, once we settled into our game we improved in those areas which transferred the pressure to Suriname.”