St. Lucia Defeats French St. Martin to remain unbeaten in pool play

Oranjestad, St. Eustatius,  July 12, 2014 - St. Lucia kept their 100% record intact when they defeated French St. Martin in three  straight sets (25-17; 25-14; and 25-12)  to top pool B of the  ECVA Senior Female competition.

It was a match where St. Lucia got progressively better particularly in their work at the net that smothered the potentially dangerous St. Martin attack.

"We thought the game would have been a bit more difficult than it turned out especially since French St. Martin  had some good attackers. However the girls galvanized themselves, became motivated and raised their level of play to a point where the victories came relatively easier than expected" reported Florian Combie Coach of St. Lucian.

His captain Natalie Edward said that it was a good game overall. "It was all about us keeping our discipline and maintaining consistency. We came here to do a job and we are sticking to that until the end!" she insisted.

The St. Lucia score sheet was well rounded, although Latoya Edward was the top scorer with 10 points, Natalie Edward and Tyna William contributed 9 each and Samantha Mann added 8.

Overall St. Lucia outscored St. Martin 13 -5 in the blocking department and edged them in kills 19 -18. The service scoring was lopsided (9-1) in favour of St. Lucia.

Coach of the French St. Martin team - Guillaume Bryan felt that they gave it their all. "I have to give credit to St. Lucia who took advantage of our  weaknesses in defense  and at the same time had a solid defense. I think we gave it our best effort and came up wanting" he admitted.

Captain of the French team had a different view. "I must disagree with my coach as I feel that we can do much better than what we exhibited today. Our communication and cooperation went out the door and that contributed to our downfall. Our team has improved tremendously over time and we still have not played up to our true potential. We keep selling ourselves short in tournaments like these" she complained while  holding back tears.

Jacqueline Hodge had 6 spikes and 3 blocks to lead the French team while the captain herself Valerie Damaseau chipped in with 6 points of her own.

As winner of Pool B St. Lucia will now play against the runner of Pool A which would be either Dominica or St. Kitts/ Nevis. That game will be decided later on Day 3.