Haiti blanks USVI, books CAZOVA finals ticket  

PETION-VILLE, Haiti, July 10, 2016 - Host Haiti booked a spot at next year’s Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championships to be held in Trinidad and Tobago when they won their second Group C match of the First Round qualifiers, beating US Virgin Islands in straight sets .

Playing in the second match on Sunday’s morning session, Haiti overcame a power failure at the venue   for the second match in-a-row as well to win 25-16, 25-19, 25-16 at the Gymnasium Vincent “Tek Kale” Port-au-Prince.

With the win, seventh ranked Haiti improved to 2-0 and maximum ten points, the same as fifth ranked Curacao who they meet in the final round of matches on Sunday night to determine the Group winner of the tournament which also doubles as a Round One CAZOVA qualifier to the 2018 FIVB World Indoor Championship to be jointly hosted by Italy and Bulgaria.

Following the loss, a disappointed Nayib Gonzalez, captain of the US Virgin Islands team said, ”As a team we broke down too often in key parts of the match mentally, which made it hard for us.

“We are a young team as well and main part of our problem is that we come from four different islands and it is very difficult for us to train as a team as often as we need too.”

Jereal Nicholas, coach of the US Virgin Islands admitted his team was well below its best.

“We had a much better performance against Curacao in our first match. The guys brought what they felt was their best game, but for me we did not play well, and now we have to go out against Cayman Islands and end on a high,”

A jubilant Haiti captain, Kempes Vilmot, said, “We came into the tournament with the aim of qualifying to the finals in T&T next year and we have accomplished that.

“It also means we have qualified to the Second Round of the World Championship qualifiers and now we want to win our final match and send a strong signal to the teams for the next round.

“I believe we can compete well with those top teams and earn a spot to the Third Round.”

Yves Larrieux, Haiti’s coach echoed Vilmot views saying the first goal of the team to qualify both to the CAZOVA Championships and Second Round of World Championship qualifiers have been met and we are happy for that.

“We are not satisfied with that though as we want to win our final match against Curacao and top the group.