St. Vincent and Grenada tip as early favorites

ST JOHNS, Antigua - June 16, 2018- At the end of the preliminaries played today, Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines who played in groups A and B respectively are the early favourites to win the title. They both topped their respective groups and were undefeated in the process.

Grenada using  the duo of Chad Phillip and Deonte Alexander opened pool play with a convincing win over Tejani Harvey and Jahsun Josiah of Antigua Barbuda (21-10 and 21- 18). Later in the day they had a relatively easy time against St. Kitts/Nevis’ Morton and Southwell defeating them on 12 in each of the games. Although St. Kitts/Nevis received and passed well they were no match for the Grenadians at the net.

Coach Brathwaite was still not pleased despite the victory. “In general they played well so far to be undefeated going into the knock out stage of the tournament. I was more satisfied with the way they played against Antigua and Barbuda earlier this morning. In this game it appeared as if they were overconfident of defeating St. Kitts/Nevis and took certain things for granted. This is an attitude we cannot take into a tournament like this. From what I have seen so far I expect that we will meet St. Vincent in the finals and this is something we cannot allow to creep in our game”, he concluded

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Enrico Louran and Micah Glasgow) likewise made light work of the two other teams in group B - St. Lucia and Dominica. Dominica (Challenger and Xavier) was stopped at 6 and 16 while St. Lucia (Florent and Gaspard) showed some fight before succumbing at 17 and 15 in straight sets.

Coach of the St. Vincent team Nikita Campbell was pleased that the plans were well on course to achieve the ultimate objective. “At the onset I told you that I was confident that our guys would pull it off and so far my boys have not disappointed me. I think that they will show even greater improvement going forward particularly in the service department”, she intimated. 

St. Kitts/Nevis ended in second place in Group B after a 3 set victory over Antigua /Barbuda (21-19, 16-21 and 15 -10). They are now set to play against Dominica who was winless in Group B. 

Coach Ray Robinson of Dominica is fancying his chances to progress even further in the tournament with St. Kitts/ Nevis as their opponents in the quarter finals.

Dominica lost both games in pool play but now have a chance to redeem themselves. Coach Robinson looked at the opponents throughout the day.

 “The St. Kitts team showed that they are technically sound but I still think that we can match them”, he said.

His opposite number Coach Cafe of St. Kitts/Nevis was worried over his team’s inexperience.   “They have only recently started and with this as their first tournament they are a bit too anxious.  If they can repeat the performance they pour in against Antigua, we will get the better of them in a close game”, he predicted.

Coach Olsen for Antigua/Barbuda admitted that he had a tough task in his quarterfinal match up. “We have our work cut out for us if we are to get beyond St. Lucia (Gaspard and Florent). “These St. Lucians have showed good movement on the court, good communication and a solid attack. These are the things we to get right before we meet them in the morning”, he noted.

Quarter finals matches commence on Sunday 17^th at 9:30 am with both games playing simultaneously.