St. Lucia celebrate victory and a ticket to the second round | Castries, St. Lucia, – Hosts St. Lucia won the ticket available for a second round berth of the 2010 FIVB Women’s World Championship by defeating Antigua & Barbuda in the decisive match of the Norceca B first-round tournament.
The St. Lucians recovered from losing the first set and controlled the match the rest of the way to win 22-25, 25-13, 25-15, 25-13. With the triumph the local girls advanced to the Norceca-D second round in Barbados through May 24-31 where they will meet hosts Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, Bahamas and Cayman Islands.
Laura Francis (15), Samantha Mann (14) and Dania Hamilton (12) led the scoring for the winners, while Sharon Payne (14) and Shauna Isaac (11) topped the losers.
“Antigua gave us a run for our money in the first set,” said Hamilton. “Now we have to keep training hard to go to Barbados, play against stronger teams, and hopefully advance to the third round.”
In the match for third place, St. Vincent and Grenadines defeated Grenada in straight sets.
In the match between winless teams, the two squads battled hard for the first two sets but at the end the girls of St. Vincent and Grenadines relied on their better physical shape to win 25-21, 25-23, 25-13.
Brenda Pinder-Joseph led the winners with 18 points and Kasia Robinson added 10.
“Now we can go back home with something to show,” said Pinder-Joseph, the captain of the winners. “It is a great feeling. The first two sets was a battle, but we came out winners." |
