By Morissa Lindsay
The Goddard Enterprises Limited Barbados Volleyball Association Division One League title stays with Deacons men after they signed off the 2022 season on a winning note last night against Starz Volleyball Club 3-1 at Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
It was a dominant display of volleyball from Deacons men as they defeated Starz 25-23, 20-25, 25-16 and 25-22 during the three best of five sets showdown and ended the league with 33 points from a total of eight games contested having won seven and lost one.
Coached by stalwart Andrew Culpepper, Deacons stood out against the rival teams that included Cawmere on 21 points and Barbados Bearings Progressive who tallied 20 for third position, while WOW Displays Williams Industries Foundation United accumulated 16 points for fourth place and Starz totalled ten for fifth place.
During a post-match interview, coach Culpepper said after losing three of his strongest players in Akeel and Ashe Oxley as well as Akeil Williams on scholarship, the other members in the team – Akeem Mayers, Nakoyia Williams-Bailey and Hallie Emmanuel-Turney – to name a few stepped up and did the job.
“It was a little bit more challenging than the last time we won it because we lost the nucleus of our team with the two Oxley boys, Ashe and Akeel as well as Akeil Williams for a period of time and those were the three strongest players I had in the past. So, now we had to go back to the drawing boards and put a lot of work in with the juniors,” Culpepper told Barbados TODAY.
Adam Straborzski who recently joined the Deacons Club setup also got in on the action against Starz Volleyball Club. (Pictures by Morissa Lindsay)
He added: “They stepped up for us and the generation keeps rolling over for us and we are really satisfied this year with what we have done because we weren’t sure how we are going to get it done but the guys really worked hard, and in the end, it paid off for us.”
When you have two teams with quality hitters, there is bound to be fireworks and Deacons against Starz was no different. There were spikes traded at both ends particularly in the early sets where Deacons led by Akeel Oxley, Mayers, Williams-Bailey, Emmanuel-Turney, Sheldon Roach and Adam Straborzski to name a few were unstoppable.
However, Starz with their lead outside hitter Jonathan Alleyne, middle man Derion Hurley as well as Kareem Grant and Nathan Weithers were not intimidated and battled strong at the net which allowed them to come from behind and tie the game 1-1 going into the third stanza.
In the third set Deacons were 16-9 at the second technical time out and Starz failed to score as many points because their hitters for some strange reason failed to connect with the ball fed by their main setter Jason Hendy. Deacons’ attacking prowess was too much to handle with Oxley, Mayers, Williams-Bailey and Christopher Best showing no mercy at the nets.
During the fourth set All Stars came from behind to tie the scores 18-18 and the encounter became entertaining once more at this stage as the two teams battled hard and in the end Deacons at 24-23 secured the victory after Oxley served an ace to end the match.
While the men’s title race has ended, the women’s is still ongoing and Toners remains top of the table on 47 points from 13 matches with one more to play. Toners registered a hard fought 3-2 win over Phoenix Security Carlton 25-16, 20-25, 25-12, 23-25 and 15-4 when they met yesterday.
Toners are just two points ahead of defending women’s champions University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds who are currently in second position on 45 points. Both UWI and Toners have one game in hand and the trophy can go either way depending on the outcome of those final matches which are scheduled to be played on Wednesday.
If Toners had won convincingly in straight sets against Carlton, they would have stood a better chance of lifting the trophy but that was not the case as they went down to five sets.
During the decisive stanza, Toners got off to an impressive 7-0 start thanks to their top hitters Ashley Jordan and Ashley Marshall before Carlton finally broke their rhythm and registered three straight points. When the teams turned at the lone technical timeout of the fifth set, it was Toners who held the upper hand at 8-4 and appeared well poised to take the victory which they did by a whopping 11 points (15-4). morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
