Chargers women take down Deacons in three tough sets

 

 

By Morissa Lindsay

The women of Chargers Club continued their winning ways with an impressive straight sets victory against rivals Deacons when the 2022 Goddard Enterprises Limited Barbados Volleyball Association Division One League continued last night at the Gymnasium.

Without a doubt the competition is always entertaining when these two women’s team meet and it lived up to expectation as Chargers with scores of 25-17, 26-24 and 25-21 emerged victorious and accounted for their second win of the competition after defeating Theta Math Academy Club United in their opening game for the season.

Coached by Lerone Knight, Chargers has had a good season so far having won the women’s title for the BVA Junior Knockout Competition and they had carried that momentum into the Division One showdown in which University of the West Indies Blackbirds are the defending champions.

There were several strong attacking plays in the opening set from both sides of the net as Deacons played strong offence and Chargers were equal to the task with several good blocks from the likes of Latifa Wood and Shaina Bradshaw who were two of the tallest players on the court.

Likewise, Chargers also scored at crucial points of the match as Thonya Joseph and Dei Padmore commanded the outside which played a role in the team being able to take the 1-0 advantage.

The Deacons side needed to settle and they did just that with one of the top players Serena Edward leading from the front with good serves. In fact, the serves from both teams were commendable. It was a matter of who could keep the ball on and after Chargers did well to break in one, the talented Padmore of the Chargers Club returned the same medicine to Deacons by serving brilliantly.

That brought about a great level of excitement especially for Chargers and for some reason Deacons were unable to respond to those well executed serves from Padmore who eventually proved to be her own letdown as she served into the net. That allowed Deacons to work their way back into the set which they needed to win.

Former national player and very experienced Julia Lewis was in the front court providing those soft hand touches that were at times effective for Deacons. But she needed some more support and even though she at times received such assistance, especially to keep the ball alive, it was not enough as Chargers were good enough to snatch a hard fought 26-24 win in the set and the lead 2-0.

In the third set Dayna Babb opened for Chargers with one of her strong serves and there was Bradshaw on the outside to finish it off with a fantastic cross court swing. That play was the type of start coach Knight would have required from the Chargers women.

Credit to Deacons however as they held a slim one-point lead [8-7] and they fought hard for each point earned as they toiled in hopes of pulling one back. But Chargers never made it easy and at 20-20 they secured the advantage by two points with a failed return followed by an impressive attacking shot from Bradshaw who had a really good game. It was an excellent encounter that ended in a well-deserved victory to Chargers.

Three other women’s matches were played last night and Warrens lost to Development Volleyball in Motion (DVM) in an exciting five set thriller that ended 25-22, 22-25, 31-29, 12-25 and 15-12 between the two teams.

In that crucial fifth set DVM captured an 8-3 lead as Warrens were forced to call time-out because they were unable to break the serves of Stephian Shepherd. Warrens with some unforced errors had only themselves to blame as DVM held the momentum when they switched sides mandatorily.

Warrens failed to return on several occasions and DVM easily capitalized on some much welcomed points. They were even forced to call time out and while experienced players such as Talya Layne and Anicia Wood and others tried their best to keep their side alive in the contest, they just struggled to score and that afforded DVM the advantage and overall win.

UWI came from a set down and trounced Toners 3-1 in what was a competitive game that eventually went in favour of the University ladies 19-25, 25-13, 25-19 and 25-19. Club United were beaten 25-18, 25-20 and 27-25 by Carlton.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb