Ladies rekindle club’s old fighting spirit in thriller

By Morissa Lindsay

Deacons refused to buckle under pressure and came from two sets down to defeat Burger King Clapham Toners 3-2 in round two of the Goddard Enterprises Limited Barbados Volleyball Association Division One League Competition last night.

Played at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, Toners started the match with lots of aggression and that put them in a winning position 25-22, 25-23 in the first two sets. But somewhere into the third set Deacons managed to slow the game down and in doing so they claimed victory 25-23, 25-22 and 15-6 in the three best of five showdown.

The match which was keenly contested lasted for close to three hours and ended close to midnight. Deacons who were clearly struggling at the beginning of the encounter, refused to go down without a fight which demonstrated the true essence of keen sporting contests.

After his team found it difficult to stop Toners’ big hitters, Ashley Jordan and Ashley Marshall, Deacons head coach Andrew Culpepper was busy briefing his players on how to get past Toners and among those tactics was the basic principle of volleyball – serve on the ball.

With a player like Ashley Jordan who can hit them with power and aggression from any angle, Deacons seemingly orchestrated a plan to get their bodies behind the ball and lift high whenever she spiked. That prevented Jordan from scoring as many points as she has normally done throughout the competition.

Down 2-0 and with nothing to lose, Deacons gave their all in the third set and were noticeably targeting Shennel Pooler, one of the more seasoned players on Toners’ team. But Toners had a strategy of their own because at times when Deacons thought Toners’ attackers were going to attack strongly, they just guided it gently over the nets.

Down one (8-7) at the first technical time out, Toners coach Cedric Proverbs Instructed his players to build back on their serves which they needed to at that stage given that Deacons were showing great resistance. The Deacons ladies, especially Serena Edwards and the veteran Julia Lewis fought tremendously well, not letting Toners get the better of them.

The game got interesting when the Deacons side came from behind and equalized 23-23 with possession. Marisa Dowell who is an experienced player held serve for Deacons and it was no surprise they went on to secure match points at 25-23 and force a fourth set.

 

That was the turning point for Toners who initially had a straight sets win in sight but Deacons, one of the traditionally strong women’s teams in local volleyball managed to tie the encounter 2-2 and forced a decisive fifth set.

While Toner’s coach had advised them to keep attacking, the Deacons coach repeatedly told his players simply to serve on. Service won in the end because that is exactly what Deacons did as Toners were unable to maintain the momentum at which they had so vigorously started.

Deacons grasped the fifth set with both hands and had a commanding 8-3 lead when the teams mandatorily switched sides and they went on to finish the game in style, winning by nine points.

There were three other women’s games played on the night and The University of the West Indies Blackbirds as expected won 3-1 against Club United who tried their best to keep up but just could not against the defending champions.

Coached by Renier Grace, UWI won 20-25, 25-16, 25-13 and 25-20 as they made it look easy at the nets against Club United. UWI’s lethal attacker Shakira Hall was among those that took care of business on the outside with her vicious strikes. It was a case of Club United defending with all of their might but still could not stop UWI from scoring.

Chargers women won in straight sets against Development in Motion Volleyball team 25-15, 25-7 and 25-18. DVM struggled to defend even on the first touch and Chargers, the more confident of the two teams, ate up anything delectably served at the nets.

The likes of Dei Padmore, Samya Jones and Dana Babb added favourable spikes on offence for Chargers with good support from the more experienced players like Latifah Woods and Thonya Joseph.

Phoenix Security Carlton also scored a 3-1 win (13-25, 25-15, 27-25 and 25-6) over Pan American Insurance Warrens. morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb