PHILLIPSBURG, St. Maarten October 15, 2022. Antigua and Barbuda booked a spot in semifinals after a 2-hour quarterfinal victory 3-1 (25-20, 20-25, 25-23, 25-15) over Anguilla at the ECVA senior female competition.
Anguilla threatened for a moment but then the senior players for Antigua took over particularly in the 4th and final set and gave themselves a chance for redemption.
Antigua Barbuda came out on top in every scoring category, in kills 32 to 23, in blocks 6 to 3 and in service points 11 to 5.
Middle Blocker Kwansia Carr of Antigua and Barbuda led all scorers with 18 points made up of 13 spikes and 5 blocks. She got help from outside hitter Yuderka Martinez who had a sterling service game clocking 8 Aces.
For the losing side, both outside hitters captain Rikiesha Leveret and Janai Gumbs posted 10 points each.
The scoresheet supported what Coach Benjamin was complaining about as more that 61 % of Anguilla’s points came from errors. Anguilla on the other hand committed just under 50%.
Semifinal action is slated for later this evening with St. Maarten taking on BVI and Antigua Barbuda versus St. Lucia.
Captain of the Antigua Barbuda team Ms Rosey Simon felt despite the win their passing was poor. “If you look at the stats you would see we only have very few attacks. You have to get that pass right in order to get a proper attack. Once we get back that on track, we will be ok”, she stated.
“We were confident that we would have defeated Anguilla but the quality of play is still below par. We can play better volleyball. We are still committing simple errors but fortunately it was a little less than our second and third game”, stated Coach Fritzroy Benjamin of Antigua and Barbuda.
His opposite number Omari Hamilton was visibly upset. “We just had some technical difficulties that we just could not do anything about at the time. It affected our rhythm and our mental focus and once the focus goes the game plan goes. We now must wrap our heads around this, reevaluate and come out and do our best in the match for 5th place”, he stated.
Captain Leveret was upbeat despite the loss. “I would first of all congratulate my girls and urge them to be positive. We improved a lot in a few areas, but we still have some things to work on. In all we will encourage each other to get better”, she said.
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