U23 Women’s Volleyball team miss out on bronze

By VINO

The Virgin Islands U23 volleyball team at the inaugural Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Under-23 women’s Tournament, at the Vide Boutielle Secondary School’s court in St Lucia. Photo: Provided

The Virgin Islands U23 volleyball team at the inaugural Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Under-23 women’s Tournament, at the Vide Boutielle Secondary School’s court in St Lucia. Photo: Provided

The Virgin Islands (VI) U23 Women’s Volleyball team remained winless after suffering a 3-0 loss to St Vincent and the Grenadines in the Bronze Medal match on Sunday August 14, 2016 at the inaugural Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Under-23 Women’s Tournament, at the Vide Boutielle Secondary School’s court in St Lucia.

St Vincent and the Grenadines took the bronze medal by dispensing of the Virgin Islands 3-0 (25-9, 25-18, 25-22), with Alicia Glasgow the top scorer for the third successive time, as she tallied 16 points and Shernell Browne, an Outside Hitter, registered 10 points.

Shoniqua Fahie, an Outside Hitter was the VI’s leading scorer with 6 points.

St Vincent and the Grenadines led in spikes, 21-14, while topping in service aces 18-5.

Head coach, Stephen, Payne said the tournament was a good gauge of what is needed in the territory to become more competitive. “What this tournament has taught us is that our development programme back home must be more sustained, instead of just preparing for tournaments.”

Payne believes that his players should be better served from their participation in the tournament and once they stay with the sport, they would improve in all facets.

In their first game the VI  battled on the court for an hour and forty minutes in a slow paced duel also against St Vincent and the Grenadines, who eventually triumphed 3-1, (25-22, 25-23, 25- 23, 25-16).

St Vincent and the Grenadines owed their win to the scoring of Outside Hitter Shernell Browne who had a game high 17 points.

For the VI, Daijha Matthews had 9 points, to be her team’s lead scorer.

On the team analysis, St Vincent and the Grenadines outstripped their opponents 25-17 in spikes.

VI Coach Stephen Payne and team captain, Daija Matthews, apportioned fatigue and unforced errors for their loss. Matthews though was satisfied with the serves, stating, “We were very good on our serve”.

She and Payne concurred that they were generally satisfied with the output of the team and vouched improvement when they met St Lucia in their next fixture.

However, S Lucia eased to a win and made it two from two, running out 3-0 winners (25-13, 25-19, 25-18), with little resistance from the VI.

St Lucia’s Yosherbel Emmanuel, a Middle Blocker and Outside Hitter- Kerin Neptune, both counted 12 points each, whilst for the VI, the top scorer was Akeela Skeete with 7 points.

Payne was bemused at his team’s performance. “I cannot explain why we played that way… They strayed away from the instructions, but all is not lost, we have Antigua and Barbuda next, and hopefully we will see a turnaround in our performance,” Payne lamented.

Unfortunately in that match up, Antigua and Barbuda needed little time and did not have to exert much energy to totally outclass the VI, 3-0,  25-7, 25-9, 25-15), leaving the girls winless from their three matches.

14 National Federations represented at Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association general assembly

1780177_10152237304415941_881124902_oThe Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA – one of the four zonal associations within NORCECA) held its biennial General Assembly on February 14 and 15 with the participation of all 14 national federations.

The opening ceremony was held in the presence of Mrs. Heather Samuel, Minister of Sports of Antigua & Barbuda, who congratulated the NORCECA Confederation on the development of volleyball and beach volleyball in the region in recent years.

The representatives of the national federations welcomed the participation of Saba Volleyball Association as an active member that will be joining the zonal competitions for the first time in 2014.

ECVA, one of the four zones within NORCECA, comprises the National Volleyball Federations of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Dutch St Martin, French St Martin, Grenada, Montserrat, Saba, St Eustatius, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and Grenadines.

The General Assembly, chaired by NORCECA’s President Cristobal Marte Hoffiz and ECVA President Glenn Quinlan, allowed for a dynamic exchange of ideas among the members who discussed all items related to the development plan of the Confederation concerning ECVA.

The assembly highlighted the success and impact of the qualification to the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China, which allowed the teams of St Vincent and Grenadines (boys) and St Lucia (girls) to realise their Olympic dreams.

Mr Marte Hoffiz made several reports on the presidency’s annual activities, the qualification process to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and provided updates on the progress towards the FIVB Volleyball World Championships in Poland and Italy.

He also expressed his gratitude for the support received from FIVB and its President Dr Ary S. Graça F° and discussed the new initiatives started worldwide to enhance the development of volleyball and beach volleyball.

During the two-day meetings it was decided that permanent technical assistance to the ECVA National Federations will be provided by itinerant coaches Ramón –Monchito- Hernandez of Puerto Rico and Joao Campos Morales of Brazil, as supervisors.

It was also discussed the financial investments made by NORCECA in the ECVA Development Plan which totaled over US$270,000 that covered the areas of sport equipment distribution, assistance to the youth and junior programs, participation in beach volley tournaments, seminars and courses for coaches, referees and physical education teachers.

Also, the NORCECA investments in FIVB World Championship Qualification Tournaments with a total amount of US$ 196,143 as well as the distribution of Sport Court Volleyball surfaces with an investment of more than US$ 275,000 since 2010 was included in the report.

The National Federations recipients of Sport Court volleyball surfaces since 2010 in are: St Vincent and Grenadines, St Lucia, Dominica, British Virgin Islands, French St Martin, Grenada, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda and Anguilla.