|
Barbados pounds Anguilla to rekindle hopes
ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad, May 25, 2013: Anicia Wood had a
match-high 11 points as Barbados rebounded from its opening loss
to T&T to sweep Anguilla 3-0 (25-13, 25-12, 25-15) in their
second match of the NORCECA Women’s Second Round Group I
qualifiers to the 2014 FIVB World Championship in Italy at the
University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Educational
Centre, St Augustine on Saturday night.
In addition to Wood, who had seven kills and three blocks in her
point total, Rhe-Ann Niles added nine points while captain Shari
Matthews and veteran player Julia Lewis added seven each in the
important win for the 13th NORCECA ranked Barbados,
which improved to a 1-1 record.
Barbados was dominant in all aspects of its 55-minutes victory,
25-12 in spikes, 8-2 on blocks and 9-1 on service aces as it
stayed in contention for a spot in the gold medal match on
Sunday night.
For Anguilla, which dropped to a 0-2 record in the group,
captain, Susan Webster got six points and Ludiane Leveret, five.
Susan Webster, captain of Anguilla , speaking after her team’s
second loss from as many matches was very upbeat about the
energy level of the team .
“For this match we showed more effort and tried to make some
adjustments from the first match, but for some reason we kept
giving away points, which cost us in the end.
“Tomorrow we play perhaps the top team in the group, so we will
have to come out and play as well as we can, “ added Webster.
Shari Matthews, the Barbadian captain was extremely pleased with
the effort of her team.
She added, ”We did a much better job tonight. We wanted to use
this match as part of our continued preparations for what we
expect is a gold medal match against T&T and we are satisfied”.
“Coming in we did not know what to expect from Anguilla, but we
responded well to what they had to offer and we now have to
continue working hard, “ added Matthews.
Despite the loss, Justus Connor coach of Anguilla said he was
very satisfied with the effort of his team.
“The energy level of the team was much better than in our first
match against Honduras. But at the same time our main problem
was that we did not execute on our attacks. Our out-side hitters
did not do the job they were expected to do.
Looking ahead to his team’s final match against group favourites
T&T, Connor said his team will be coming with the same mindset
of playing for a win.
“Even if it’s just for ourselves, we need to give it our best
effort,” ended Connor.
Andrew Brathwaite, coach of the winning Barbadian teams pointed
out that coming into the tournament his team had no idea of what
to expect from Anguilla.
“We tried our best to get details on Anguilla and what we did
was take notes from the first match they played and we
recognized we needed to be very steady in our play.
“I was very happy to see that the girls executed well and we can
now look forward to our next match which we need to win to get
the final.
On Saturday afternoon, in the final match of the first day, host
T&T come up against Honduras at 8pm.
On Sunday, T&T meets Honduras in the first match of the day from
9am and two hours later, Barbados and Anguilla close out the
round-robin group play , at the end of which the top two teams
will qualify for the gold medal match on Sunday night from 8pm
as well as the Third Round of NORCECA qualification to Italy.
The other two teams will play for third spot on Sunday from 6pm
with the winner still in with a chance to qualify for Italy.
However, it will only do so as the best ranked third placed team
of all the six Second Round groups on the NORCECA ranking on
January 1, 2014. |
