Saves like these from St. Maarten's Clayton Holiday, helped them beat Dominica

 After 12 years of medals, Dominica goes home winless in OECS play

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

 By far, the biggest surprise in the 15th OECS Men’s Volleyball Championships held last weekend at the Multipurpose Sports Complex was the fall of Dominica.

The reigning silver medalists were for the first time in 12 years, a spectator. The demise began in the opening match on Thursday when they were stunned by Antigua, who grabbed a 25-16 first set victory. Dominica started the second set with an 8-2 run en route to a 25-21 win, before losing the next set 21-25 on a series of mistakes. They evened the series at 2-2, with a 25-21 triumph. In the final set where the game was tied four times, Antigua held an 8-5 edge then capitalized on Dominica’s mistakes late in the game for a 15-13 victory.

Olsen Joseph led Antigua with 21 points and 15 kills. Henry Matthew also had 21 points. Esron Gittens and Emroy Lee added 16 each. Sherwin James and David Toussaint had 19 and 17 points respectively for Dominica. Johnny Suraphin finished with a game high 25 blocks and Glen Games topped the charts with 34 kills.

On Friday, their medal hopes were dashed in a straight set 25-12, 28-26 and 25-15 loss to defending champs St. Lucia. Playing for pride on Saturday morning, insult was added to injury. After taking the first two sets from Dutch St. Maarten 25-22 and 25-22—they lost the next three 26-28, 23-25 and 13-15—to finish winless and last in their grouping as the top two teams—Antigua and St. Lucia advanced to play for prizes, joining St. Kitts and the BVI.

“This is an embarrassing position for Dominica, very embarrassing and frankly as coach, I’m very embarrassed,” Albert Loblack said following the game with St. Lucia. “That was the position we were in, in the early years of the tournament and we have long gone past that. We have been respected. Anybody hearing Dominica is now in that position would be shocked, and I’m embarrassed, I’m telling you straight.”

Loblack said he brought a talented team that had prepared for the tournament, but they had a miserable performance. “Our first two years were a learning period for us in the OECS tournament and after that, we have always contended for medals—we have always been in the quarterfinals, semifinals,” Loblack recalled. “We have always been in the top, but this just very embarrassing situation for us.”

Examining the weakness in his squad against St. Lucia, Loblack said there were two inexperienced players on it, but his experienced players were not clicking—they didn’t get their game together. The setters he said were not meshing with the team and they were not setting properly. One of the main areas his team took a lot of blows was in blocking he said. “Our blocks were pretty, pretty miserable and in the end, we were not setting our blocks properly. Our center men were slow in coming across and St. Lucia was just passing at will,” Loblack noted. “Plus, our backcourt defense was too planted. They were not moving on their feet and focusing on the ball coming across the net and adjusting accordingly.”

St. Lucia’s Coach Terry Verdant his team—which had won 13 of the previous 14 tournaments with their only loss coming against Dominica in 2000—did not play to their usual standard. He also noted that Dominica’s setter David Toussaint wasn’t effective. “His standard has been dropped and they looked like they have to bring some new players,” Verdant observed. “Their guys are getting a little older and they need to retire.”

Verdant said the victory—which was followed by Saturday morning’s 25-19, 25-19, 18-25 and 25-19 triumph over Antigua to win Zone B—were more like a practice match for his squad as they prepare for the Volleyball World Cup. “This entire tournament is a tune up for the World Cup qualifiers,” he said.