Dominica and St Lucia win opening matches of ECVA Men’s  

BEAUSEJOUR, St Lucia, September 6, 2012 - Dominica outlasted Antigua and Barbuda to win the opening match of Group B of the 2012 final of the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Men's Volleyball Championships here at the indoor facility.

Dominica came back from two sets down, to win 3-2 (16-25, 14-25, 25-16, 25-23, 15-12)

the match that it lasted one hour and fifty eight minutes.

Head Coach of Dominica, Jeffery Edmond was high in praise for his team’s never say die attitude.

Edmond said they were able to rebound despite experiencing some fatigue because of little recovery time from their travel.

“We were a bit low on energy in the first two sets, but we fought hard to come back …. It was our resilience which brought us home, because the team is a fit bunch “, Edmond stated. “Expect even a better showing in our next match.”

Meanwhile, the triumphant captain, David Toussaint said it was familiar territory for them to be two sets down against Antigua and Barbuda.

“We have been there before, so we knew what we had to do to come back and win the game “, Toussaint commented.

In the other match of opening day, host St Lucia diffuse a spirited St Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 29-27) as Group A got underway.

St Lucia’s Joseph Clercent was the lead scorer with 23 points while Daryl Franklyn had 12 for St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Despite winning, Coach of the St Lucia outfit, Kendall Charlery thought his players were not at their best.

“We looked a bit tentative and that was not what we wanted”, Charlery commented.

“It was a lesson for us as we have to keep our heads up as there are more difficult games to come”, Charlery said.

Looking ahead to the encounter with St Kitts, Charlery confessed that they will have to adopt a different approach, citing that St Kitts would be a tougher opponent.

Likewise, St Lucia’s captain, Jason Octave conceded that they were below par on the night.

“We were hoping to minimize our errors which came up in practice, but it did not happen and we let the game slip away”, Octave conceded.

Octave added that his players failed to do the simple things which at crucial points in the match, which allowed St Vincent and the Grenadines regain a foot hole in the match.

Both teams engage St Kitts on Friday, with St Vincent and the Grenadines meeting the Kittians firstly in the morning session of play .

St Lucia and St Kitts then square off in the last match of the night to round up the preliminary round -robin phase of the tournament.