St. Eustatius prevails in five set thriller over Dutch St. Maarten

Oranjestad, St. Eustatius,  July 12, 2014 - The stands in the Earl Merkman Sports Hall rocked as over 150 home fans  shouted , scream and pounded as they urged their local team to a thrilling five-set victory (24-26; 25-27; 25-23;25- 16 and 15-11) over Dutch St. Maarten. It  was the last match of round robin play of the  ECVA Senior Female competition and essentially a dead rubber as both teams were already eliminated from the play offs.

The game still had lots of significance since St. Eustatius was in search of their first victory in a tournament of this nature and they did not let down their fans.

"We resorted to old school volleyball, made some adjustments in the back court that boosted our defense and at the same time assisted our attack. Those adjustments were key to our victory tonight" reported coach Elvin Henriquez of team St. Eustatius.

Captain  Amarikinia Robin felt  that it was a tough game. "It was very difficult after we lost the first two games from very good positions so we really wanted to make up and satisfy the fans with a victory to save some pride in our game. They did a great job at spurring us to victory" she admitted.

Robin had a captain's performance as she ledwith 15 points gained from 13 spikes and 2 service aces. She got notable support from Sandra Voorneman with 12 points and Minushka Woodley with 10.

For the losing team captain Lathasha Mills equaled her opposite number in points with 15 of her own with her support cast being Chesley Augustine with 12 and Keishan Huggins with 10.

Coach Cleophas  Arrindell of St. Maarten was of the view that they lost the game rather than St. Eustatius winning it. "It was a bitter loss for us because I was confident that even with the use of the bench players we should not have allowed that match to go five sets. Apart from  a line up error in the fifth set I believe that our young guns got a bit nervous under the conditions and committed too many easy errors. Added to that, the miscommunication among our players made things worse for us and easy for them" he indicated.

At the end of the day his team contributed some 55 points from errors to St. Eustatius. In the spiking department, Dutch St. Maarten had a slight edge 41-40 but St. Eustatius won the battle of the blocks 15 to 5. St. Maarten served up 11 service aces to St. Eustatius 5 to further reflect the topsy-turvy nature of the game.

The semi finals and finals continue on Sunday July 13th,2014.