Matthews fires Barbados women to first win

PORT-OF-SPAIN, AUGUST 7, 2014: Shari Matthews was the lone player in double-figures as she fired record six-time winners’ Barbados past Bahamas 25-21, 25-11, 25-19 for their first in the Women’s Division of the 15th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.

Overseas-based  Matthews hammered 19 kills and two aces in her 21 points match tally while Anicia Wood, veteran Julia Lewis and Shani Leacock were the next best scorers with nine, six and four respectively for the Barbadians who are hunting a first title in 12 years after previous triumphs in 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2002.

Bahamas, meanwhile got ten points from Melinda Bastian, eight from Chryse Bain and seven by captain Krystel Rolle-Brown in the loss.

The Barbadians who were coming off a loss against four-time defending champions and five-time winners overall in T&T on Monday night, were the better of the two teams in all aspects of the match and despite having two days off looked sharp at the net to outscore their opponents, 32-27 on spikes, 10-4 on blocks and 3-2 on aces.

Barbados was also very efficient with the use of the ball and only committed 18 errors to its opponent 30,  in the one hour and 23 minutes contest.

With the win, Barbados improved to a 1-1 record while Bahamas dropped to 0-2, both behind  joint-leaders, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica who met in the final match of Thursday’s schedule with similar 2-0 records. Suriname, the other team in the women’s competition also has a 0-2 mark.

Speaking after the loss, Rolle-Brown said her team trained tired on Thursday morning and came into the match playing the same way.

“The girls had a tough time getting over the loss to Jamaica on Wednesday and coming into this match we were not over that defeat which kept us off our game.”

“We have to let go of matches that are behind us and focus on what is ahead and we need to do it from our next match against Trinidad and Tobago.”

Thonya Joseph, captain of Barbados said, “Going into the match we knew we had to play better than we did against Trinidad and Tobago. We had two days off and we worked on the things we did wrong in our first game and tonight our blocking and attacks were much better.”

Bahamian coach Joseph Smith said his team is a work in progress and hopes that they will continue to learn from each match as the tournament goes on.

“It’s a young team with a few experienced players and the more the play, the better they will become.”

Andrew Brathwaite, Barbados coach was happy to get a win under his belt and credited his players for digging in from early.

“We still have some areas to work on and once we can improve on them we should get to the final.

On Friday, Barbados will face Suriname from 2pm and Trinidad and Tobago plays Bahama in the final match of the day from 8pm.