St. Lucia beats Antigua to retain OECS Men’s Volleyball

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

 After four hard days of competition at the Multipurpose Sports Complex in Road Town, there has been no shift in power in OECS Volleyball. Competing in its first final late Sunday, Antigua failed to unseat perennial champs St. Lucia and shift the balance of power in regional Volleyball. On the other hand, host BVI saw its bid for its first medal derailed by St. Kitts in a five-set thriller, after they snatched the first two sets.

St. Lucia—whose only loss in the 15 years of the championships was to Dominica in 2000—stormed to a 2-0 lead, after taking the first two sets 25-23 and 25-23. St. Lucia, leading 8-7 at the first break in the third set, came out as if they trailed, then outscored Antigua 17-8, to complete a straight-set triumph and sealed their 14th title with a 25-15 victory.

St. Lucia’s Donnus Augustus had 15 points and 12 kills. Claude Richards added 14 points and 4 blocks while Kevin Jean who eventually walked off with MVP honors finished with 13 kills. Jeremiah Griffith had 11 points and 10 kills to lead Antigua.

St. Lucia was dominant as ever, but, their performance dissatisfied Coach Terry Verdant who said they had to fight too much. “Our problem was not blocking, not defending,” he noted. “But also in our offensive part, we had to stop playing the ball in the middle where we got blocked by the opponent, so what we did to win was to start hitting the ball to the wings and that’s how we won our points.”

St. Lucia had a Saturday morning 25-19, 25-19, 18-25 and 25-19 triumph over Antigua to win Zone B. Verdant said Antigua played better in the championship game. “They were not blocking but had some good attacks,” he said. “They changed their attacking to the sides and that was very good.”

Taking his team to the final in his first stint, Coach Mitchell Francis who led Antigua to an OECS bronze before said his team has never been in the finals and they are taking away good experience. The first two sets where his team lost by identical 25-23 scores, were close games Francis said. What happened in the third set when they lost 25-15 and were outscored 17-8 after trailing 8-7? “Well, I suppose we were a bit overwhelmed by St. Lucia,” Francis explained. “The more experienced team got the breaks and the chances favored the more experienced team. However, we needed to have more games before the tournament. We only had about five games per year and that’s not enough. Once we get more experience, we’ll do well. But, it’s the first time we are winning a silver medal.”

Verdant said the matches has done a lot for his team which was using the tournament as tune up for next years Volleyball World Cup qualifier. “I saw that my weaknesses are really in blocking and defense which I have to work a lot on,” he noted. “I got some things to work with and that was very good.”

After a straight set 25-20, 25-18 and 25-21 victory over French St. Martin on Thursday night, St. Kitts beat host BVI in straight sets 25-16, 25-18 and 25-18 to win Zone A on Friday. Despite the loss, the BVI advanced to the medal rounds then fell to Zone B champs St. Lucia 25-13, 25-19 and 25-20, earning the right to play for the bronze.

The BVI took the first two sets from St. Kitts 25-19 and 25-22. St. Kitts however came back to take the next three 27-25, 25-21 and 15-13 to deny the BVI its first OECS tournament medal. Shaun Seabrookes led St. Kitts with 32 points and 18 kills. Steadroy Collins chipped in another 20 points.

St. Kitts’ coach Glenn Quinland said he thought the BVI team rallied and played very well. “I was looking at them last night against St. Lucia, and I knew they weren’t going to come in and roll over this evening, especially if they had a decent crowd inside here. I saw what the crowd did for them last night, so I knew they were going to put up a significant effort to get the bronze,” Quinland explained. “I made one change after the second set when we were down 2-0, and I think that stabilized the situation. It allowed me to put a more complete unit on court. Before that, I was going for too much specialization. That change manifested itself in the overall win.”

BVI coach Elsworth Phillip said they could have won the game because they know they have one of the better teams. “But, in competition, no one is going to say ‘hey, take this,’” Phillip noted “We have to go out and beat the opponent. We had it to take tonight and it slipped away. It’s heart. Everything just boils down to heart. It’s not going to be given to us. We know that we can compete but, we have to go out there and prove by winning. We just had another one get away tonight.”

OECS Tournament individual awards winners: Best Attacker; Oslen Joseph, Antigua. Best Defender: Kemroy Percival, St. Kitts. Best Scorer; James Matthew, St. Kitts. Best Blocker; Jeremiah Griffith, Antigua. Best Server; Henry Matthew, Antigua. Most Valuable Player; Kevin Jean, St. Lucia.