St Vincent beat St Eustatius for finals spot

St Georges, Grenada, June 23, 2012 - Bretisha Gregg and Krystal Ralph each scored 16 points as St Vincent brushed aside St Eustatius in straight sets (3-0) to all but advance to the finals of the 2014 FIVB World Championship Women’s Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Continental First Round Group B Qualifying Tournament.

Playing a must-win match, the “Vincey women” registered a 25-15, 25-17, 25-22 victory in 65 minutes to end with a 2-1 record in round-robin play and eight points, six behind table-toppers’ St Lucia which won all its matches, two of which were by 3-0 margins, and the other 3-1.

For St Eustatius veteran player Sandra Voornemen was their top scorer for the third straight match with ten points while captain Cleopatra Spanner and Germaine Zimmerman added five points each in the loss.

St Vincent coach Marlon Williams speaking after his team enhanced its chances of a semifinal spot by picking up the five points said, “Congrats to our girls on reaching the final. It was one of our aims at the start of the competition to not only book a spot in the next round of the World Championship Qualifiers but to also secure a top two finish to get to the ECVA Championships carded for Antigua in November.

“We have done that, now we have a match for the gold medal with St Lucia who defeated us in the round-robin stage and we will be coming all out to try and avenge that loss.

Team captain Brenda Joseph added, “The girls did well this morning against St Eustatius. We knew we had to win in straight sets to pick up the maximum five points in order to be in a comfortable position and we did that. We will be playing St Lucia in the final and they will be pretty confident against us having won our first meeting in the group stages.

“But we know what we have to do to improve from that last meeting and now we go into the gold medal clash looking to take it point by point, set by set and pull off the victory hopefully.

Carla Duinkerk, coach of the winless St Eustatius said her team was exhausted going into the match having travelled for most of Thursday then playing two matches in one day.

“It’s all new for us and we are learning with every match. In saying that I still think we have a good performance left in us and it will be great if we can show that when we play the match for third spot tonight which will secure a spot in the next round for us as well.

Cleopatra Spanner, captain of St Eustatius said her players tried their best but once again they came up short.

She added, “We know we can do a lot better than we have done over the past two days and we now have to win our final match if we want to qualify for the next phase of the competition.”