Jamaica – team
However, despite the win in one hour, 51 minutes, USVI which ended with four points from two matches still had to settle for second spot in the three-team pool while Jamaica (seven points) finished as table-toppers and qualified automatically for Saturday’s semifinal.
Bahamas, which defeated USVI on Tuesday in its first match before losing to Jamaica 3-0 a day later also ended with four points, but the hosts had a better points-ratio percentage of 0.96 to its 0.95.
Leading the way for a pumped up USVI, which held a 16-15 edge on service ace but trailed 9-14 on blocks, was Valissia Brathwaite with a tournament-high 29 points while captain Sacha Gumbs tallied 19, Janelle Sarauw 15 and Danielle Selkridge, 11 Jamaican captain Shedelky Hamilton-Barnes led her team with 16 points. Sasha-Lee Wallen got 14, Makini Thompson 13 and Lecia Brown, 12 in the loss.
Gumbs, while happy with the win was quick to point out her team also had an inconsistent game. “We started off doing the right things and dominated early on but Jamaica then up and we had to push ourselves a lot more. Jamaica also had a good blocking game but in the end it was the team that had more heart came out on top.“
Commenting on the match, Jamaica‘s Hamilton-Barnes said her team fell down in its passing game early on followed by a lot of simple errors. “Our game tonight was too up and down and in the fifth set we started off too rocky. While it was not our best performance I must commend our blockers for keeping us in the match but our poor serving cost us in the end.“
Desiree Miranda, assistant coach of USVI said she believed it was the best match of the tournament played so far and she was delighted her team came out on top. “The players on both teams are evenly matched, but we wanted to show the people of USVI that we are a better team than what they saw against Bahamas and we did that. The girls went out tonight and worked as hard as possible and now we move on to the quarterfinals.”
Gatasheu Bonner, the Jamaica coach said his team expected USVI to come out strong after it was beaten in its opening match. “They came at us very hard early on and our passing game did not respond. Going forward we will need to fix that problem and work at our consistency as well. As usual our girls played with a lot of fighting spirit but unfortunately we were coming from behind most of the times losing a lot of energy and in the end we could not finish strong.“
In the first match of Thursday, Trinidad & Tobago continued their quest for a fourth straight title and fifth in tournament history by brushing aside long-time rivals Barbados in straight sets (25-17, 25-15, 25-22 ) in their final Pool A match.
Led by captain Krystle Esdelle‘s 13 points and 12 from Kelly-Anne Billingy, T&T won in 68 minutes to top its three-team round-robin group with maximum ten points and advanced to Saturday’s semifinal as automatic qualifiers.
Channon Thompson and Darlene Ramdin chipped in with nine points each for T&T which dominated 11-5 on blocks and 17-7 on service aces while Shari Matthews led Barbados with ten points.
Krystle Esdelle, the T&T captain she was satisfied that her team got a second straight win to go to the semifinals, but not entirely happy with how they played. “We still made too many errors as a team but credit to Barbados also for a good competitive match.“
Speaking after the match, Barbadian captain Thonya Joseph said her team made too many errors to be competitive against T&T. “Our passing on the T&T service was not good at all and it cost us in the first two sets. We got better in the third set by getting better passes while our blocking game also improved but in the end we lost to a better team.“
Andrew Brathwaite, Barbados coach first congratulated T&T on a match well played before praising his team for its effort.
“T&T has the best women’s team in the region and it’s always good for Barbados to play against T&T because both teams have fought so many battles over the years. We did not enjoy our best for the first two sets but as a coach I am heartened by the players effort in the third set and hopefully we can rebound from this and get to the final.”
Francisco Cruz, T&T coach lauded Barbados for a well played match. The first two sets my players executed our game plan well but in the third set we did not play well while Barbados improved. “Thankfully we recovered and got the win in three straight sets. The third set said to me that our players need to focus and reduce the number of mistakes. We made too many mistakes serving while our players often found themselves out of position on long rallies. We have to remember it is up to 25 points mostly so we have to continue playing until we reach that goal.“
