Haiti Tops St. Lucia to Even Record

COLORADO SPRINGS, United States, May 16, 2014 – Haiti downed St. Lucia 12-25, 25-23, 25-19, 30-28 Friday evening on the second day of Men’s NORCECA World Championship Qualification Third-Round Pool O Tournament being held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Haiti had lost to St. Lucia 3-1 in the NORCCEA World Championship Second Round Pool J in April 2013, but both teams advanced to the third round.

Ernson Moise ignited the Haiti offense with 18 points, while Ralph Adloph added 16 points. Volvick Dupuy Senel contributed 10 points in the victory.

Julian Bissette paced St. Lucia with 27 points, while Joseph Clercent contributed 20 points and Jason Octave 11 points.

St. Lucia held a 58-51 margin in kills and 9-5 block edge. Haiti’s serve created passing issues with an 8-7 ace advantage.

Haiti, now 1-1, finishes pool play on Saturday against the host United States at 7 p.m. MT.  St. Lucia, now 0-2 in the tournament, concludes pool play on Saturday against Guatemala at 5 p.m. MT. The top two teams in the four-team NORCECA World Championship Qualifier will play for the gold medal on Sunday with the winner advancing to the 2014 FIVB World Championship taking place in Poland.

Haiti Head Coach Yves Larrieux: “The first set was more of an observation to see what St. Lucia does. In the second set, I asked them to work on reception to put the other team in difficult situations. After the first set the team believed in themselves.”

Haiti Captain Ralph Adolph: “We were very motivated for this match against St. Lucia. We really focused on serve-receive. Every time we had the ball, we wanted to win that point and focus on the game. Tomorrow, we are going to start by giving our best and try to win at least one set against a tough United States team. It will be a hard match, but we will fight.”

St. Lucia Head Coach Kendall Charlery: "It was a very, very disappointing match. We started the first set very, very good. We had a good vibe and we had a good thing going. But in the second set we made some crucial mistakes at crucial points and it cost us the set. From there we lost all momentum.  We have one more game tomorrow, and we're going to give it our all against Guatemala. It's not going to be an easy match. But we're going to try to salvage something from this tournament."

St. Lucia Captain Jason Octave: "I think it just comes down to our team needing to be more focused on the task at hand. The game wasn't supposed to be that difficult.  If we stuck to our tactical plans, then the game should have gone exactly as the first set went. But we kind of strayed a little bit, we deviated a little bit, we kind of broke apart a little bit. And we were just never able to come back and be that one unit that we needed to be to win the match. We have to continue to work. We have a pretty young, inexperienced team. Hopefully, there is a silver lining in this loss."