Anguilla canters pass St. Eustatius in tournament opener

St. JOHNS, Antigua, September, 9, 2016 – A 20 point effort from Sherwin Richardson led Anguilla to a straight set victory (25-8, 25-15, and 25-22) over St. Eustatius in the opening match of the ECVA World Cup Qualifying tournament Group A men

Captain and setter Ian Connor of team Anguilla realized that the defense for St. Eustatius had difficulty in stopping Richardson and so stuck with him throughout the match to provide 29 attempts from which he scored 17. Adding to the difficulty of stopping Richardson, St. Eustatius gave themselves no reprieve by recording almost 33 errors. On the offensive end it was only Shastri Rivers who got to double figures (10).

Coach Jason Liburd appeared pleased. “It was a good win for us, I wouldn’t say it was easy, instead I thought that we played a good game and executed our plans and it always feels good to get the first win in the bag,” he said.

Captain Ian Connor was also happy with the win. “The guys are in a positive mood after this victory, for me it felt like a learning experience fitting in with some of the younger players and was able to control the flow of the game. It is no secret that #7 (Richardson) is our number one player so you should be surprised that we go to him so often”, he admitted.

Coach Hook was very blunt. I believe some of the guys simply choked. They missed the rotations and they were nowhere near the passing and therefore could not execute. If you notice we put up more resistance in the third set but we should have been tough from set.

Captain Alex Andell underscored Hook’s view. I believe that we drowned ourselves with too many unforced errors especially in the first two sets. If we continue to play like this we will get beaten off the court”, he lamented. We have to now pick ourselves up and come back with a much better fight”, he concluded.

St. Eustatius meets Antigua and Barbuda in the next game while Anguilla will face Team Montserrat.