Trinidad & Tobago Advances to 5^th Place Match

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado USA (Sept. 30, 2017) – Trinidad & Tobago dealt Martinique at 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 loss on Saturday evening in the NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship Classification 5-8 match held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Trinidad & Tobago opposite Ryan Stewart contributed 15 points in the victory, while middle blocker Marc Honore pocketed 13 points with a team-best four blocks. Outside hitter Brandon Legall added 12 points, including a match-high five aces.

Martinique outside hitter Joann Breleur turned in eight points, while outside hitters David Lefaivre and Rodrigue Larcher tacked on seven points each.

Trinidad & Tobago held margins of 8-2 in blocks, 6-4 in aces and 36-31 in kills. Both teams committed 25 errors in the match.

Trinidad & Tobago now advances to Sunday’s fifth-place match against Guatemala at 4 p.m. MT in Sports Center II. Martinique will now play for seventh place against Costa Rica on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Sports Center II.

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.

Martinique Coach Eddy Erialc: “We do not know yet which team we will play for seventh place, but in this match Trinidad was much better because we made too many mistakes.”

Martinique Captain David Lefaivre: “Today we didn’t manage to win. But tomorrow we will try to forget our loss today and do all our best.”

Trinidad & Tobago Coach Sean Morrison: “Our goals for the match was to just to stick to our goals. Martinique is a strong team in their attack. We wanted to be consistent in our silver and black. It feels good for us (to win). Our first goal coming into the tournament was to finish in the top five, and we have put ourselves to be in a position to be in the top five.”

Trinidad & Tobago Captain Ryan Stewart: “Just going into the match focused, minimize our unforced errors and play as a team was how we went into this match. Tomorrow we will play Guatemala for fifth-sixth place. Tomorrow we want the guys to go into the match confident, be positive, win one point at a time and let’s just play volleyball.”