Haiti overcomes El Salvador in thriller to set up Pool J

GROS ISLET- St Lucia, April 28- 2013-  Haiti earned a hard fought 3-1 ( 19-25, 25-18, 25-18, 25-22) to set up  Pool J of the Second Round of the NORCECA Zone of the 2014 FIVB  Men’s World Championships Qualifications.

The win put Haiti on 10 points, one more than El Salvador, as a three way fight could be established for the top spots to go to the final.

Haiti handed St Kitts and Nevis a 3-0 defeat, but lost to St Lucia 3-1. El Salvador beat St and Nevis and St Lucia, both by 3-1 margins.

The other team in the hunt, St Lucia must beat St Kitts and Nevis by a 3-0 margin and gain 5 points, and carry their tally 10, to leap frog El Salvador and earn a berth in the final.

Haiti put themselves in pole position with a clinical execution in all departments.

The Haitians put it together after going under in the first set, to celebrate gleefully when the last point was achieved in the fourth set, while the El Salvadorians’ countenances read otherwise.

In welcoming the win over the El Salvadorians, Haitian coach – Joseph Yves Larrieux said he always knew his team would have played better as the competition progressed.

“Our offensive and defensive systems were all good today; we played better,” the Haitian coach emphasized.

“We are almost certain of a place in the final and we hope to put on another good display”, Larrieux said with confidence.

Coach of El Salvador, Gabriel Linares said that his team’s previous match against St Lucia took a toll on his players.

“As you can see we played well in the first set, but we did not have the strength to continue against a physically strong Haitian team,” Linares admitted.

The teams finishing third and fourth will meet in the consolation match later this evening, with the first and second places compete for the gold medal and an automatic berth to the third round.