Honduras spikes Anguilla for Group I bronze
ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad, May 26, 2013: Captain Tessa Michelle
Flores led from the front with a match-high ten points to lead
Honduras over Anguilla, 25-9, 25-18, 25-18 in their NORCECA
Women’s Second Round Group I qualifier third spot playoff to
the 2014 FIVB World Championship.
This was in the penultimate match of the two-day four-team
tournament at the University of the West Indies Sports and
Physical Educational Centre, St Augustine, on Sunday night.
In addition to Flores, who had seven kills in her tally,
Mariajosse Diaz and Dariana Flores added eight points each in
the 64 minutes win for the Central Americans who dominated,
24-15 on spikes, 5-0 on blocks and 15-3 on service aces.
For Anguilla, captain Susan Webster had eight points and
Rikiesha Leveret, five in the loss.
It was the second win in as many meetings for the 18th NORCECA ranked
Hondurans over Anguilla, ranked 22nd, after registering a 25-15,
25-12, 25-11 win in their round-robin encounter on Saturday's
opening day of the tournament.
Webster, speaking after the defeat said she was extremely
disappointed with the outcome as she had hoped for a better
fight from her team.
“We now have to go home and start from scratch on the drawing
board and try and work on the many things we have to to improve
from this tournament,” added Webster.
Flores described the victory as a bitter sweet one, saying “We
are happy that we won the match to finish third, but
disappointed in that we were not among the top two, to qualify
automatically for the next round.
Justus Connor, the Anguilla coach was also not happy with the
level of play from his team.
“We did not do as well we should have and this was mainly
because of passing and attacking game was not up to standard.
Marvin Ulloa, coach of the Honduras team while happy with the
win said his team needs to be consistent.
“We did not well in each match, we were up and down in our level
of play and this can be attributed by the lack of matches at
home.”
In the gold medal match that followed, host T&T ranked seventh
in NORCECA and the four-time Caribbean Zonal Volleyball
Asssociation champions came up against Caribbean neighbours
Barbados, six-time regional queens with both teams already
assured of a spot in the Third Round of NORCECA qualification to
Italy.
When both teams met in the first match of the competition on
Saturday morning, T&T ran away with a 25-12, 25-6, 26-24
victory.
By finishing third, Honduras, still has a chance to qualify for
Italy, but will only do so, as the best ranked third placed team
of all the six Second Round qualifying groups based on the
NORCECA ranking on January 1, 2014. |