Solid Jamaica eases past Suriname women in opener  

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, August 4, 2014 - The trio of North American-based players, Gillian Asque, Sasha-Lee Wallen and captain Simone Asque combined for 30 points as Jamaica eased past 2010 finalist Suriname 25-15, 25-16, 25-16 in their opening women’s match of the 15th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship at the Jean Pierre Complex, Mucurapo.

Gillian ended with a team-high 11 points, while Wallen chipped in with ten, and Simone, Gillian’s sister, added nine in the 69 minutes win for the Jamaicans which was helped by 32 unforced errors from Suriname.

The winners dominated 25-22 on spikes, 11-3 on blocks and 7-5 in service aces while only committing 16 errors.

For the Surinamese, who played well below their best, the lanky Sandrina Hunsel led all scorers with 16 points, comprising of 12 spikes, two spikes and two service aces.

Commenting after the match, Suriname captain, setter Chery Brunnings admitted that her team did not play well.

She added, “It seemed as though we were too nervous and we did not play good defence. We now have to improve a lot for our next match against the host country.

Jamaican captain, Simone Asque was as expected very delighted with the start saying her team did a great job in executing the game plan set out by the coaches.

“The win has given us much more confident and we are very excited to see what the other teams have to offer because we don’t know them and play to our strengths against them.”

Suriname coach, Eric Aikman said, “It was not a good performance from the team. We did not play good volleyball as they were not focus and made too many errors. We still have three matches to play and I hope we can get our focus as quickly as possible because we can play better volleyball.

An elated Ortnel Findlay, the coach of the winning Jamaicans expressed his delight with the victory, adding, “It was a total team effort from the girls today. We knew playing the first match tends to bring a lot of nerves with it, but they settled quickly, played to plan and came away with a straight sets win, which is always good.”