ST JOHN’S, Antigua, July 6, 2022 – St Maarten dug deep to beat Dominica 3-2, as Pool B of the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association( ECVA) Senior Men’s Championships got going here at the YMCA Indoor Facility.
St Maarten thus defeated Dominica 25-23, 22-25, 22-25, 25-23, 15-9, in a ding- dong tussle for early honours.
Leading the scoring for St Maarten was Riegmar Valies with 18 points and Lenoard Jeffers recorded 17 points.
Dominica’s Captain- Yahn Florent was the leading scorer for his team with 25 points,
In a post -match interview St Maarten Head Coach – Clayton Holiday assessed: “My guys started off well, but lost a little focus, eventually they walked back into their game and they did what was necessary …It was a case about mind over matter, as we had the will power to win”.
The St Maarten Head Coach said that he detected a flaw in the Dominica’s play, in which they had difficulty in dealing with balls in position one, and his team exploited this to good effect
Meanwhile, St Maarten Captain- Leonard Jeffers stated, “ It was a wonderful game… We came up with a well- balanced team, having experienced players and new ones and the coaches did a phenomenal job by bringing in the right players at the right time, causing the team to mesh perfectly… I cannot complain”.
Looking forward to the rest of the tournament, Jeffers said “ We can only get better.
For Dominica , Florent said, “ I thought we had it but our service and passing let us down”.
Facing their next opponents, Florent is cognisant of the abilities of the St Vincent and the Grenadines team, but said that they will be looking to correct their flaws in order to stay in contention for a semi- final berth.
Joining Florent in reviewing his team’ first match, Head Coach- Ericson Le Blanc reported : “ It is always disappointing when you lose, but on the night the other team wanted it more than we did … We have to go back to the drawing board ad take some decisions so going forward in the next game we can do better”.
Match two in the tournament is in Pool A, pitting Antigua and Barbuda versus Anguilla.
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