Brathwaite seals USVI third straight win in Pool C
ST CROIX, Virgin Islands, May 27, 2012 - Valissia Brathwaite
tallied a joint-tournament high 23 points, laced with 19 kills
to lead host US Virgin Islands to a 25-17, 20-25, 25-20, 25-18
triumph over Martinique in the final round-robin match of the
2014 FIVB World Championship Qualification Women's Pool C
Tournament at the Ronald "Ranche" Charles" Basketball Arena.
With the win, US Virgin Islands ended with 14 points followed by
Curacao (9), Haiti (6) and Martinique with one.
USVI, which also got 12, 11 and ten points respectively from
captain Sacha Gumbs, Danielle Selkridge and Elisa Sanchez now
faces Curacao in the gold medal match from 8pm on Sunday night
while French-speaking Islands, Martinique and Haiti meet for
third.
Tania Villeronce led Martinique with 12 points while Laurianne
Gwed and Stephanie Trefle each tallied 11 points in the loss.
While they entered the match as favourites, USVI which outscored
its opponent 51-33 in spikes was made to work hard for its
victory as Martinique showed great fighting spirit even after
losing its first two matches. Martinique was narrowly outscored
on blocks, 10-12 while on service aces they trailed 7-8.
Despite another win for her team USVI captain Sacha Gumbs was
not 100 per cent happy as she felt her team was not clinical
enough.
"We made the match much more difficult for ourselves than I
think we should but at the same time Martinique made us work
harder with their digging.
Gumbs also dismissed the notion that her team went into the
encounter already looking ahead to the final against Curacao.
"We don't look pass any team. It's just that our expectations of
ourselves are very high and we wanted to try and close out this
match in straight sets, which we did not achieve and credit to
Martinique for that.
"We are going back to a second meeting with Curacao and we
expect them to come at us but we will be ready, ended Gumbs.
USVI coach said she still believes her players have not played
to their full potential and her team will not be taking Curacao
for granted in the final even after winning their round-robin
match-up in straight sets.
Commenting after his team's third loss from as many matches in
the tournament, Martinique's coach Mickael Tramis said he was
not too disappointed as his team continues to show improvement.
"We have improved every match we have played and we are happy as
we still have a chance to go to the second round of the
tournament.
"For our players this game was special because they see US
Virgin Islands as the top team in the group and the girls were
motiviated to do well and now once we take that same attitude
and fighting into the third place match with Haiti, I think we
have a good chance of winning, stated Tramis.
Martinique captain Soraya Yazza added, "I was not surprised that
we managed to take a set from USVI because we have been
improving since the start of the competition. We did not have
much practice days back in Martinique and our first two matches
kind of prepared us for this encounter." |