PLEASANTVILLE, San Fernando, Trinidad, July 8 , 2022: Suriname registered an impressive 3-0 (25-13, 25-18, 25-17) win over a jaded US Virgin Islands in their 2021 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association Junior Men (Under-21) Championship round-robin opener at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena.
The win was the the first for Suriname to move to the top of the five-team round-robin winner-take-all table with a five points, followed by Haiti with four points and host Trinidad and Tobago with three after their wins over Jamaica (3-1) and US Virgin Islands (3-2) respectively on Thursday’s first day of competition.
Leading the way for Suriname as they hunt a first-ever crown was Shemar Jameson with 16 points and Jonovan Wijngaarde who added 12 points while for US Virgin Islands, Ajani Henley had a team best 12, and Jomari Jacobs, who chipped in with ten while Jared Brown got six in the loss.
Speaking after the loss US Virgin Islands coach Isaac Raphael said he did not want to make the quick turn-around in his team matches from playing the last night on the opening day to first match on the second day a major talking point, but instead pointed towards the inexperience of his team.
“We have a very young group of players and and when our starters did not not get off to a good start we had to go to the younger guys, but credit to Suriname as well as they have a very good team and played a well.”
US Virgin Islands captain, Gabriel Rosa said it was tough for his team to play back-to-back matches in less than 24 hours against quality teams like Trinidad and Tobago, and then Suriname.
“We put out a big effort last night and we just could not find that same energy again today, but our mentality is to come out to each match and push as hard as we can and play to the best we can, no matter the circumstances.”
Suriname coach Antoine Vliet was delighted with his team’s display saying, “It was a very good game for us.”
“The guys were well prepared for this match even though we had a delayed start and it showed in our performance.”
Team captain, Duncan Hiwat echoed the views of his coach and said he was very happy with how his team played.
“We played really well at the beginning of the match, but then we had a dip in the second and third sets, but I was very happy to see how we rebounded in those sets to take the victory in straight sets.”
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