Trinidad and Tobago in fifth place beating Venezuela at Barranquilla

BARRANQUILLA, Colombia, July 25, 2018.- Trinidad and Tobago beat Venezuela 3-0 (26-24, 25-19, 25-20) to finish fifth place of the women’s volleyball tournament at the 2018 Barranquilla XXIII Central American and Caribbean Games at Humberto Perea Collesium.

Trinidad and Tobago’s undying will to beat Venezuela left them with only eleven unforced errors, while their opponents committed 33. Trinidad and Tobago’s ongoing kills prevailed with a sizable 43-27 advantage and stopping Venezuela’s strongest scorers with a huge 15-0 blocking margin; they also led with 7-3 in aces.

Trinidad and Tobago’s offense was led by Channon Thompson with 17 points, including 15 kills and by Esdelle Krystle who also scored 17 points, including 5 blocks and 4 aces; they were accompanied by Sinead Jack with 15 points. Winderlys Medina of Venezuela scored 13 points and Nelamira Valdez 10 points. 

Trinidad and Tobago finishes fifth with 3-3 win-loss record and Venezuela with 2-4 in sixth place.

Channon Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, the top scorer of the match said “our main goal was to win a medal, but since we couldn’t we came out today to win fifth position and represent our country the best we could. Venezuela is a very resilient and strong team, they beat Cuba and five sets, and so in the third set they were above and for us it was only a matter of being patient, pulling ourselves together, remaining calm and doing what we can do”. About their upcoming World Championship debut, she added “we are going back home to practice, hopefully we can have our own home court to train every day and have better facilities, that some things will be put in place to prepare”.

Cuban Francisco Cruz head coach of Trinidad and Tobago for the past 12 years, said “we wanted to improve our team’s game level for the World Championship and I consider we did; we came from less to more and physically the team has been recovering well, yesterday and today we played much better. Darlene Ramdin wasn’t able to play today because she has problems with her knee and we changed our game system with another player, therefore some imprecisions. We are leaving with much more experienced and well prepared; I hope it won’t be lost in Trinidad”.