|
ST JOHN’S, Antigua, July 6, 2022 - St Maarten
dug deep to beat Dominica 3-2, as Pool B of
the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association(
ECVA) Senior Men’s Championships got going here
at the YMCA Indoor Facility.
St Maarten thus defeated Dominica 25-23, 22-25,
22-25, 25-23, 15-9, in a ding- dong tussle for
early honours.
Leading the scoring for St Maarten was Riegmar
Valies with 18 points and Lenoard Jeffers
recorded 17 points.
Dominica’s Captain- Yahn Florent was the leading
scorer for his team with 25 points,
In a post -match interview St Maarten Head
Coach – Clayton Holiday assessed: “My guys
started off well, but lost a little focus,
eventually they walked back into their game and
they did what was necessary …It was a case about
mind over matter, as we had the will power to
win”.
The St Maarten Head Coach said that he detected
a flaw in the Dominica’s play, in which they had
difficulty in dealing with balls in position
one, and his team exploited this to good effect
Meanwhile, St Maarten Captain- Leonard Jeffers
stated, “ It was a wonderful game… We came up
with a well- balanced team, having experienced
players and new ones and the coaches did a
phenomenal job by bringing in the right players
at the right time, causing the team to mesh
perfectly… I cannot complain”.
Looking forward to the rest of the tournament,
Jeffers said “ We can only get better.
For Dominica , Florent said, “ I thought we had
it but our service and passing let us down”.
Facing their next opponents, Florent is
cognisant of the abilities of the St Vincent and
the Grenadines team, but said that they will be
looking to correct their flaws in order to stay
in contention for a semi- final berth.
Joining Florent in reviewing his team’ first
match, Head Coach- Ericson Le Blanc reported : “
It is always disappointing when you lose, but on
the night the other team wanted it more than we
did … We have to go back to the drawing board ad
take some decisions so going forward in the next
game we can do better”.
Match two in the tournament is in Pool A,
pitting Antigua and Barbuda versus Anguilla. |
