St. Lucia Reach Finals with Narrow Win over Antigua & Barbuda
St. Lucia and Antigua engaged in what was called the most competitive match in the ECVA Senior Female Competition to date. When the dust settled it was St. Lucia by a neck in a gripping 5 setter – 25-23, 23-25, 25 -18, 19 -25 and 15-11.
St. Lucia showed resilience as the early games were typified by Antigua making runs and St. Lucia roaring back to level then go ahead.
The game gave room to two key players going head to head. Mali Peters Middle Blocker of Antigua was everywhere she was spiking (14 points) blocking (5 points) and to top that off she had 4 Aces. In the end she had a game high 23 points. St. Lucia’s key player – Lisa Casimie responded with 21 points all of them from powerful Spikes as she had a woeful time at the service line with several service errors.
St. Lucia’s edge came from Outside Hitter Kerin Neptune who had 19 points and an invaluable contribution of 12 points from Yoshebel Emmanuel.
When Coach Challery slowed his heart rate enough for an interview he commented on the individual contributions which helped his cause. “Neptune is one of our more consistent players. Casimie is our power hitter so when they tried to shut down Casimie we went to Neptune and got some valuable points. I must admit however that they really pushed us, not that we were not expecting it as we saw them play and knew what they were capable of. I just think that we were the fitter team and had a little more energy when it mattered most”, he recalled.
St. Lucia beats St. Maarten in straight to remain undefeated
St. Lucia poured in another sterling performance in the process of defending their ECVA title, this time defeating St. Maarten in straight sets to keep a perfect record to date in the ECVA Senior Female competition
St. Lucia was hardly pushed and stayed in control throughout the set eventually wining 25-18 25 – 18 and 25 -20. St. Maarten on the other showed marked improvement play but it wasn’t enough to unsettled the St. Lucians
The improvement of the St. Maarten team was noticed by their coach – Dimitri Beauperthuy.
“I told my girls that this is the best game that we have played for the tournament so far. It is unfortunate that we did not win but the major lesson learnt is that we now that we can compete with the best teams in this competition. This sets us in good stead for the quarterfinals that we have to play later, so in general I am positive going forward.
Coach Challery of St. Lucia had a pensive look on his face. “Things are going as planned so far. We are happy with the win and also in short order so we can get some additional rest. We changed a few things from the last time and that seemed to work a little better as used one of our outside players in the opposite position and I like what I saw there. The focus shifts to the semifinal but the attitude will remain the same, whoever qualifies to play against us, we will be ready with our “A” game
St. Lucia successfully defends ECVA female Title
St. Lucia proved the pundits correct when they came out on top once again in ECVA senior female competition. In the final game they had a comfortable 3-1 victory over St. Martin with scores of: – 25 -19, 25-18, 23 -25, and 25-14. A result that the majority of fans expected.
The defending champs looked in control of the game until complacency crept in during the 3rd set and St. Martin took the initiative to at least avoid a straight set defeat in the finals.
St. Lucia was carried once again by their Captain and Vice-captain Lisa Casimie and Kerin Neptune respectively. Together they combined for 33 points both scoring 13 spikes each.
On the team score sheet St. Lucia had a distinct advantage in Attack leading 40-29 in Spikes. They led in blocks as well (10-3) but St. Martin had more Aces – 6 to 4.
On the other side Captain Valerie Damaseau led her team from in front with 12 points and got assistance from Middle Blocker Jacqueline Hodge with 11.
St. Lucia takes Lion share of the awards at ECVA Female Competition
When the dust settled in the capital of Antigua, Champions St. Lucia took home 5 of the 9 individual awards on hand. St. Lucia’s Kerin Neptune was the easily the best server with a .89 average and 16 Aces included.
She was also 3rd in the scoring category. Best Middle Blocker when to Yosherbel Emmanuel also of St. Lucia. She had 17 Blocks and 33 rebounds.
Lisa Casimie added to St. Lucia’s trophy collection when she won the best Outside Hitter while Jade Weaver of Bermuda was adjudged the best Opposite Hitter.
Mali Peters of Antigua and Barbuda had 71 Spikes to edge Lisa Casimie (68) for the Best Scorer title.
St. Lucia Captain Cindy Wilson showed her experience claimed the Best Setter trophy. Monique Cordiero of Bermuda was a distant second.
Cool Kids back to School Volleyball Refresher
The Laborie playing field was the site for the Saint Lucia Volleyball Association’s back to school volleyball refresher program. This event heralded the start of the Association’s primary school developmental program among nine primary schools on the Western coasts of the island. SMJ (St. Lucia) Ltd was the main sponsor for this activity through their Cool Kids brand. The event saw over 45 students from various primary schools enjoying a fun filled educational morning through sports.
Eighteen Coaches attending Level I Course
SANTO DOMINGO, October 29, 2018 – Eighteen coaches hailing from Aruba, St. Lucia, Curacao, United States, Belize, Bahamas, Grenada, Cayman Islands and St Kitts and Nevis are taking part in the Level I Course currently lectured by Cuban Francisco Cruz in Santo Domingo.
The course began today at the NORCECA/FIVB Regional Development Center in Dominican Republic with an opening ceremony chaired by Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, president of NORCECA and Luis Mejía Oviedo, president of the Dominican Republic Olympic Committee and COI member.
Also in attendance were Angel Rivas as Vice President of the Dominican Republic Volleyball Federation and Tony Mesa who represented the Ministry of Sports and Recreation.
Saint Lucia MENS National Volleyball team seeks to retain ECVA men’s Title
On October 31, 2018 , the Saint Lucia Senior Male national Volleyball team left the island today to participate in the ECVA Senior Men’s Tournament taking place in La Borie Grenada, from the 1st November to the 5th November, 2018.
Captained by seasoned setter Severin Mongroo, the Saint Lucian team seeks to retain its title with its number 1 ranking within the Eastern Caribbean. The winner of the tournament gets to represent the ECVA at the Continental Championships to be held next year.
St. Lucia Blunts St. Kitts/Nevis in ECVA Men’s Opener
LA BORIE, Grenada, November 1, 2018 – St. Lucia defeated St. Kitts/Nevis in a confident and clinical manner in match #1 of pool play in the ECVA men’s championship. The straight sets victory (25-13, 25-13, and 25-11) was a no contest as St. Kitts/Nevis could find no answer for the power and pace of St. Lucia.
Coach Terry Verdant of St. Lucia concurred that it was an impressive victory for his team. “We had very little problems executing our game plan tonight and the opponents obliged by putting up very little resistance. It was a confidence booster as we remain on course for achieving our objective”, he said.
His opposite number from St. Kitts Nevis – Jason Liburd concluded that it was an overall poor performance for them. You can sum this up in one word – Passing. Our passing was nonexistent and you would know that once that is off it is very difficult to get anything going. Kudos to the opponents who also played a very good game and compounded our problems but we will bounce back”, he beamed.
The scorecard reflected the dominance of St. Lucia leading in two of the three categories. In Spikes they led 36 to 7 in Service Points it was 18 to zero while Blocks were even at 4.
St. Lucia Recover to Defeat Antigua Barbuda in four sets
LA BORIE, Grenada, November 2, 2018 – After falling behind in the first set St. Lucia awoke like the proverbial sleeping tiger to dominate proceedings in the remaining three sets eventually claiming a 3-1 victory (22-25, 25-18, 25 -20 and 25 17)
The Antigua/Barbuda duo of Jamarie James (16 pts) and Adrian Constant (12 pts) had very good performances in all departments, spiking for 19 points and blocking for 6 points among them. However Joseph Clercent, outside hitter of St. Lucia overshadowed them with a superlative performance. He had 26 points made up of 25 spikes and a monstrous and memorable block at the net. He was virtually unstoppable particularly when he came through the middle from the back court. Clercent got good support from Augustin Faulkner with 14 points and Tevin St. Jean who chipped in with 11 points.
Both teams were awful in making errors particularly from the service line. In total St. Lucia donated 37 while receiving 34 from Antigua/Barbuda. Blocking scores were dead even at 9 but St. Lucia held the edge in spike 44-32 and in serves 7 to 5
Carl Williams of Antigua Barbuda was pensive while summing up what happened. “I think our guys relaxed a bit after winning the first game and one can ill afford to do that against a team like St. Lucia who has an all-around good game. Our main areas of concern is stopping Joe (Clercent). He is the heart and soul of the St. Lucia attack and we have to go back to the drawing board and come up with a plan for him” , he said.
Level I Coaches Course Concludes in Santo Domingo
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, November 2, 2018 – The Level I International Coaches Course held at the NORCECA/FIVB Regional Development Center in the Dominican Republic concluded successfully on Friday.
Eighteen coaches hailing from Curacao, Bahamas, St Lucia, United States, Belize, Aruba and U.S. Virgin Islands spent five days in Santo Domingo receiving practice and theoretical lessons from FIVB Instructors Francisco Cruz of Cuba and Juan Cartagena of Puerto Rico.
Netton Thomas- Phoenix 758 Volleyball Club
The certificates of approval of the Level I Course were presented by Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, President of NORCECA Confederation and First Executive Vice President of FIVB during a ceremony held in the main classroom of the Development Center.
Marte Hoffiz thanked the instructors Cruz and Cartagena for their dedication to teaching the game and expressed his satisfaction for the participation of the new coaches who are dedicated to teaching the basics of volleyball in their respective countries.