Haitians battle past Martinique in St Croix
ST CROIX, Virgin Islands, May 26, 2012 - Haiti opened the 2014
FIVB World Championship Qualification Women's Pool C Qualifiers
with a determined 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, 26-24) triumph over fellow
French-speaking island, Martinique on the first day of
competition at the Ronald "Ranche" Charles Basketball Arena on
Saturday morning.
Leading the way for the Haitians who drew the applause from the
crowd for their never-say-die attitude to every point played was
Sainvilia Aubert and Esther Desrosiers with nine points each.
Astride Jusma chipped in with eight points for the winners who
capitalized on the 40 errors of Martinique as compared to its 23
committed.
For Martinique Stephanie Trefle top scored with eight points and
was supported by the trio of Tania Villeronce, Sabrina Leopoldie
and Melissa Cyrilla with seven points apiece.
An elated Frederic Francois, coach of the winning Haitians said:
"It was a good game for us especially as we got the win to start
with even though it was basically a new team of players we have.
Only our captain has experience at this Norceca level before but
the young players stepped up. We had a good first set, but in
the second and third sets Martinique played much better which
forced us into few adjustments which proved pivotal for us.”
Haiti captain Nadege Louisma said, '"It was a very good match
for us as the lessons of the coach were used in the match to the
best of our ability and we are very satisfied as a team overall
as we look to the other matches.
Commenting on his team's loss after the match an upbeat Mickael
Tramis, coach of Martinique instead credited the Haitians for
their work ethic.
Tramis said jokingly, "For me it seemed as though we had six
players on the court and Haiti played with 12 because they were
scrambling every ball.
"Congratulations to the Haitians. We have never played a team
like them before. We had a poor start and never really
recovered, and when we managed to get close to their close we
never found the extra push needed to get over that hurdle.
Martinique captain, Soraya Yazza added: "We have a very new
group of players and our play today was just not good enough to
adjust and get proper settings. Our lack of attack and spiking
along with our digging was not up to par today as well as we got
off to a slow start and never really recovered.” |