St. Vincent Wins Rivalry Match with St. Lucia

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado USA (Sept. 29, 2017) – St. Vincent & the Grenadines rallied to defeat rival St. Lucia 22-25, 25-20, 25-19, 25-15 on Saturday afternoon to finish in ninth place at the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines opposite Ronaldo Franklyn powered down 19 kills and three blocks for a match-high 22 points. Middle Marcus Thomas added 10 kills a match-high five blocks for 15 points.

St. Lucia was paced by Joseph Clercent’s 17 points, while Anfernee Ferdinand add 16 points and Gillan Octave 13 points.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines out-blocked St. Lucia 12-7 and held a 4-3 edge in aces. St. Lucia’s offense produced a 48-47 margin in kills.

The NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship is a qualification tournament into the 2018 FIVB World Championship. The top three teams in the 10-team field earn berths into the World Championship, while the top two teams in a second NORCECA qualifier held later this fall round out NORCECA’s five vacancies into the world event.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines Coach Brian Burke: “Well words cannot express our feelings. We are elated to get a victory at this level and against St. Lucia, one of our rivals for years. They have been beating us at the senior level for as far as I can remember. And to come here and get a victory over them, we will savor this moment and enjoy it. It is a motivation for the players. We have done it now, we will be mentally prepared next time we play again.”

St. Vincent & the Grenadines Captain Cluevvan Cumberbatch: “We started late, but once we got going, we decided that we were not going home without a win. So we came out and played hard. We got the win and will enjoy that. For the future we will train harder and be a better team.”

St. Lucia Coach Terry Verdant: “The tournament is my first time in a big tournament, and I have really enjoyed that and watching the other top teams. For today, we did not have our top setter. But I still think we could have done better.”

St. Lucia Player Joseph Clercent: “I think in this tournament we had some mishaps, some ups and downs playing different teams at different levels. We have a very young team. I think some of the players were not mentally prepared for this tournament. I think we just need to go back home and continue working, and trying to get better and push our young players. As for the tournament, the level of play is very, very high and is really difficult for us as a young team that do not have that level of play in the Caribbean. I think if we continue to play at that level, our players will improve gradually.”