Martinique blanks Anguilla 3-0 again, take Pool M bronze 

PARAMARIBO, Suriname, June 16, 2013 - Martinique registered a second straight 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-16) defeat of Anguilla to take the bronze medal in the NORCECA Second Round Group M Tournament towards the 2014 FIVB World Volleyball Championship in Poland.

Leading the way for Martinique which dominated on spikes 25-19, blocks 6-5 and service aces, 9-0 was Edouard Lowinsky with 14 points, while Brice Hardy-Dessources got 10, with three service aces and two blocks.

Sherwin Richardson was the top scorer for Anguilla with ten points, while Calvin Samuel got eight.

Reflecting on his team’s fourth straight loss from as many matches in the two-day tournament, Ian Conner, captain of Anguilla said like all the other matches his team’s main problem was their first pass from the serve.

“Our passing was not consistent enough and at this level if it is not you will not get the result you want,” said Conner who thinks his team needs to train a lot harder and stay together as a unit if they want to improve and compete at this level frequently.

Martinique captain David Lefaivre admitted it was difficult for his team to get ready to play for the bronze, after coming so close to getting to the gold medal match.

“It was very tough, but we knew Anguilla would be coming out to play much better than they did in the morning match and their level did improve. They played a much better fighting game, but we were also ready and determined to end with a win,” ended Lefaivre.

Jason Liburd, Anguilla coach while not happy that his team failed to win a match said he was pleased to see an improvement in play from the first match to the final.

“But congrats to Martinique they played a much better game than us and deserved to get the bronze.

Martinique’s Eddy Erialc, said he was satisfied with the bronze medal considering the mounting injuries his team had to deal with over the first three matches.

“This match was of good use to us because after beating Guatemala we kept our chances of getting to the gold medal match alive, but then we had a tough match against Suriname which we lost because we had to change our strategy due to the many injuries.

“We then won against Anguilla, but we committed too many errors and handed Anguilla too many points which cost us a chance at the gold medal and advancing to the next round.”