Honduras spikes Anguilla for Group I bronze

ST AUGUSTINE, Trinidad, May 26, 2013: Captain Tessa Michelle Flores led from the front with a match-high ten points to lead Honduras over Anguilla, 25-9, 25-18, 25-18  in their  NORCECA Women’s Second Round Group I qualifier third spot playoff  to the 2014 FIVB World Championship.

This was in the penultimate match of  the two-day four-team tournament at the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Educational Centre, St Augustine, on Sunday night.

In addition to Flores, who had seven kills in her tally, Mariajosse Diaz and Dariana Flores added eight points each in the 64 minutes win for the Central Americans who dominated, 24-15 on spikes, 5-0 on blocks and 15-3 on service aces.

For Anguilla, captain Susan Webster had eight points and Rikiesha Leveret, five in the loss.

It was the second win in as many meetings for the 18th NORCECA ranked Hondurans over Anguilla, ranked 22nd, after registering a 25-15, 25-12, 25-11 win in their round-robin encounter on Saturday's  opening day of the tournament.

 Webster, speaking after the defeat said she was extremely disappointed with the outcome as she had hoped for a better fight from her team.

“We now have to go home and start from scratch on the drawing board and try and work on the many things we have to to improve from this tournament,” added Webster.

 Flores described the victory as a bitter sweet one, saying “We are happy that we won the match to finish third, but disappointed in that we were not among the top two, to qualify automatically for the next round.

Justus Connor, the Anguilla coach was also not happy with the level of play from his team.

“We did not do as well we should have and this was mainly because of passing and attacking game was not up to standard.

Marvin Ulloa, coach of the Honduras team while happy with the win said his team needs to be consistent.

“We did not well in each match, we were up and down in our level of play and this can be attributed by the lack of matches at home.”

In the gold medal match that followed, host T&T ranked seventh in NORCECA and the four-time Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Asssociation champions came up against Caribbean neighbours Barbados, six-time regional queens with both teams already assured of a spot in the Third Round of NORCECA qualification to Italy.

When both teams met in the first match of the competition on Saturday morning, T&T ran away with a 25-12, 25-6, 26-24 victory.

By finishing third, Honduras, still has a chance to qualify for Italy, but will only do so, as the best ranked third placed team of all the six Second Round qualifying groups based on the NORCECA ranking on January 1, 2014.