Martinique sweeps Curacao for first win

COUVA, TRINIDAD, JULY 5, 2017: Former champion Martinique  got its campaign back on track in the 16^th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Men’s Championship with a straight sets (25-14, 25-23, 25-23) defeat of Curacao in Pool D at the National Cycling Centre.

Coming of losses in their opening matches to Suriname (3-1) and host and two-time winners T&T (3-2) in their opening pool matches on Tuesday, both Martinique and Curacao were desperate to get among the winners.

However, it was the French-speaking island, playing on a full day rest compared to their rivals who ended their clash with T&T at 1.30am on Wednesday, who looked the sharper of both teams and got the crucial win to improve to 1-1.

Curacao’s cause was not help also by an injury to key setter Raynold Marchena with the scored locked at 17-17 in the second set as his team struggled without his presence and in the end, fell to a 0-2 record.

Commenting on the loss, Curacao captain and veteran player, Gilbert Paulina said he was suffered a lot because of lack of rest.

“We did not get enough rest time between our match and today and it showed in how we played.”

Martinique’s David Le Faivre credited his team for being much more focus.

“Yesterday in our first match we did nothing, but today our players had the right mentality to play and we got the win.

Maverick Alexander, Curacao’s coach was quick to point out that his team suffered from not having enough time to recover from the first match.

“We had a very short rest time as we got back to our hotel after 2am. So it was very difficult for the guys to get up and be ready physically for this match.”

Martinique coach Erialc Eddy said he was very happy, more so because his team exacted revenge for a recent loss in the Caribbean Football Union Cup competition.

“We had an extra motivation to do well in this match against Curacao and now we just need to stay focus, serve well , pass well and execute .”

On Thursday in their final round-robin match, Martinique faces T&T from 9pm while Curacao meets Suriname in the early match from 2pm.