Barbados still undefeated

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands, October 7, 2012 – Barbados trounced hosts Cayman Islands in straight sets (25-17, 25-14, 25-20) to finish undefeated in the preliminary phase of the NORCECA-E First Round Tournament of the 2014 FIVB Men’s World Championship.

The Bajans registered a 3-0 win-loss record and will meet Suriname on Sunday night for the first place of the event. Aruba and Cayman Islands will battle for the third place and the ticket to next year’s second round of competitions.

Kyle Browne and Akeem Payne each collected 8 points to lead Barbados while Keeble Knight finished with 10 for the defeated side.

The winners held margins of 8-2 and 7-1 in blocks and aces respectively.

Jamaal Nedd for the winners said “we tried to work on the little things that still are missing, we had a good performance during the tournament, I believe our recent experience during July’s CVC made the difference. I wish the best to Cayman Islands, they are a good team.”

Olney Thompson who didn’t play against Barbados indicated “we need to be prepared for tonight’s game; we are looking forward still to qualify and take third place. As for this match, Barbados is definitely the most experienced team here.”

Ludger Niles of Barbados was content in saying “we primarily wanted to qualify and that part is done. We used some of our bench players to save energy for the final match and Cayman Islands did the same. All in all the competition has been a good one.”

 “We tried to make a change in our rotation using one of our younger players as a setter and he did pretty well. We need to develop our volleyball at a junior level. We still can make it to the next round so we’ll be expecting fireworks against Aruba,” the words of Keith Higgins.