Chargers women are the newly crowned BVA Junior Knockout Champion. (Pictures by Morissa Lindsay)
By Morissa Lindsay
Defending men’s champion Omega XL Deacons convincingly retained their title while Chargers women are the new queens of the Goddard Enterprises Limited Barbados Volleyball Association Junior Knockout Competition played yesterday at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
The newly crowned men’s and women’s champions lost their opening set but rallied with intensity and determination to come from behind and lift their respective titles 3-1 in entertaining fashion.
In the first knockout final of the evening, Chargers women won 22-25, 25-23, 25-14 and 25-12 against Development Volleyball in Motion (DVM) while Deacons trounced Hill Road 19-25, 25-16, 25-13 and 25-22 in the men’s showdown.
Coached by Lerone Knight, Chargers played unbeaten throughout the tournament and they attributed that performance to their eagerness to get back on court to play volleyball after being unable to do so during the Coronavirus pandemic.
“We just had that eagerness to be here and to be present and game after game we just worked hard and the girls fought to get here. A lot of these girls came through third division which is the lowest rank and they worked really hard together which is the most important thing.
“So, the nucleus of this team at least six or seven of these girls have been together for two to three years and then they were able to mesh with Dei Padmore and Tonneil Rowe who are first division players,” Knight explained.
Giving his assessment of the final against DVM, Knight added: “I expected DVM to show up and play a really good game. They were really competitive so for the most part I wasn’t surprised that they got this far.”
DVM are a good defensive team and they demonstrated in the first set of the final to take the 1-0 lead over Chargers.
Officiated by first referee Talya Layne who was assisted by second referee Richelle- Ann Bryant, DVM made an early statement to take the momentum at 16-12 over the Chargers who made some early unforced errors.
The likes of Amber Gittens, Kandia Shorey, Dessani Waithe, Jordan Griffith, Rachelle Pollard and Kristina Alleyne as well as libero Thea Bradshaw were some of the vital contributors for DVM on the court.
With Chargers under early pressure they needed to win the second set and Dayna Babb with the serve followed by an outside smash from attacker Samya Jones signalled the beginning of three straight points for the ladies in red and black.
Jones was supported by fellow attacker and Division One player Dei Padmore who picked up points from all parts of the front court as the Chargers team worked to ensure they secured the 1-1 equalizer which they did easily.
Chargers victorious squad also included Amariah Williams, Jenika Atherley, Andrea Oughterson, Tamika Husbands, Latifa Wood, Shaina Bradshaw, Makayla Brathwaite, Shaina Cox, Tricia Phillips and libero Akasiya Drakes-Maloney.
With a crop of such good young players, Chargers having tied the match 1-1 was able to comfortably stamp their authority and secured victory by a huge margin in the third and fourth sets.
The men’s final between champions Deacons and Hill Road was also entertaining and victorious coach Andrew Culpepper was pleased with his team’s efforts.
“This victory was good for us because I have a lot of youngsters in the building and we also lost a lot of players that went on scholarship. So this is their first and I am happy for them. We have one or two seniors for the final but coming up through the tournament we played with the majority of our youth players,” Culpepper said during a post-match interview.
There were some controversial calls as early as the first set and Culpepper, a former national player, stated that helped to motivate the Deacons team to play even harder.
“I think that helped motivate us, the calls and I just told the guys let us forget the calls and forget the referees. Once we play to the best of our ability we would be successful and we needed to build that lead from early, don’t let them get away and it paid off for us. So, we pressed hard early in the sets and it made it easy for us to come out on top,” coach Culpepper explained.
After Deacons came from behind to tie the match 1-1 in the second set, the beating of cymbals and chants by Deacon’s die-hard supporters led by former outstanding veteran female player Julia Lewis sitting in the stands was encouraging for the players who gave it their all.
Led by seasoned players Sheldon Roach and Ronald Rice, Deacons squad was also made up of Nkoya Williams, Haile Emmanuel-Turney, Akeem Mayers, Dershone Codrington, Nathan Russell- Griffith, Nicholas Russell- Griffith, Kadon Hoyte and libero Christopher Best to name a few.
The reality is that Hill Road went down 2-1 going into the fourth set and needed to win. Their junior players needed to step up because veteran player Dale Addison, one of Barbados’ best setters and Alain London, could not do it by themselves.
Deacon’s servers also strategically targeted Hill Road libero Anthazia Mason, the lone female player in the match. It was a strategy that worked well at times for Deacons men as they served the ball in her direction with no return. There were also times when Mason went low and dug well as she kept the ball alive for Hill Road to stay in the contest.
However, Hill Road allowed Deacons the early momentum and that was costly. Not to mention Hill Road had a scary moment when at 19-18 to Deacons, Addison, on the attack to score, slid and hit the back of his head as his left shoe came off in the process.
From there the writing was on the wall for Hill Road who eventually lost the fourth set and match as Deacons went on to celebrate the knockout championship. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
