KINGSTON, Jamaica, July 23, 2011 - The 8th edition of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Junior Men’s Volleyball Championships commenced today with Barbados playing US Virgin Islands at 1:00pm at the Alfred Sangster Auditorium.
Both teams seemed well prepared from the first whistle, with USVI taking early leads in each set. Barbados won the game in three straight sets (25-18, 26-24, 27-25) as both teams went down to the wire.
The team captain of Barbados, Ramon Blades, commented that “Our team was in good spirits before the game, and despite falling behind in each set we were able to support each other to fight harder.”
USVI and TTO crowned in CAZOVA
ST CROIX, Virgin Islands, April 5, 2012 – U.S. Virgin Islands claimed the gold medal at the CAZOVA Boys Youth Championship with a four-set (25-19, 25-21, 14-25, 25-20) triumph over a resilient Curacaco on Wednesday.
MVP Nayib Gonzalez had a tournament-high 21 points and Aseah Thomas and Jordan Evans added 14 and 13 points respectively as the top contributors to the win. Derrick Alexandre and Sharif Gabriel finished with 13 and 10 points for Curacao.
MVP Malika Davidson’s 20 points led Trinidad and Tobago to a 3-0 (25-15, 25-22, 25-20) victory over Haiti in the gold-medal match of the CAZOVA Girls Youth Championship.
Sakile Grannum contributed 9 points including five aces and three blocks as the eventual champions outblocked their opponents (6-2) and also dominated in the aces category (9-4). Reann Young also had 9 tallies including 4 aces. The best Haitian scorer was Solaida Pierre with 10 points.
Jabarry Goodridge scored 10 points and Chioke Holde added 8 to lead Barbados in the 25-15-25-25-17 victory over Trinidad and Tobago for the boys’ bronze medal.
The girls’ third place went to U.S. Virgin Islands following a straight-set (25-22, 25-14, 25-23) victory against Barbados. Danielle Christian led the winners with 11 points and Ashley Marshall had 9 for the defeated team.
Boys individual awards
MVP: Nayib Gonzalez (TRI), Best Scorer: Jabarry Goodridge (BAR), Best Spiker: Nayig Gonzalez (TRI), Best Blocker: Jeandry Phillips (CUR), Best Server: Nathanael MacLean (BAR), Best Setter: Lakish Plante (ISV), Best Receiver: Jabarry Goodridge (BAR), Best Digger: Jabarry Goodridge (BAR), Best Libero: Matthew Bailey (BAR).
Girls individual awards
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, April 20, 2012 – NORCECA Confederation welcomed three new female members to its Board of Administration during the first of three days of meeting of the Executive Committee on Friday.
The new members are Mireya Luis of Cuba, Sabinah Clement of British Virgin Islands and Lucille Hobson of U.S. Virgin Islands.
Luis is a legendary former player of the Cuban teams that won three consecutive Olympic Games gold medals at the Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) editions.
Clement and Hobson presides over the National Volleyball Federation of their respective countries.
Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, President of NORCECA, remarked on the importance of the new additions saying that now the BOA has five female members out of a total of 15. The other two are Marta Centeno de Sajche of Guatemala and Bertha Cuadra of Nicaragua.
ST. CROIX, Virgin Islands, April 10, 2012 – The island of St. Croix is just a tiny white sand spot in the archipelago located to the east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea, but in the recent weeks this United States’ territory is increasingly growing up bigger and bigger in the volleyball map as hosts of several youth and junior events of the CAZOVA zone, one of the sub divisions of NORCECA Confederation.
Thanks to the energetic Lucille Hobson, a former female volleyball player who now presides over the U.S. Virgin Islands Volleyball Federation, the sport is becoming a very popular discipline among the youngsters in both genders.
The CAZOVA Youth Boys and Girls Championships just concluded here last week with great success and the Women’s Junior Championship is currently underway with a total of six teams competing for the title at Central High School.
The local boys’ team won the regional event overcoming the competition from Curacao, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago while the girls ended up in third place behind TTO and Haiti and ahead of Barbados.
These were the first medals won at the international scene by teams from U.S. Virgin Islands since the U-19 Boys won a first-ever silver medal in 2007 at Trinidad and Tobago and, according to Hobson, this new breed of players want to do better and are very committed.
The home athletes participated in a two-week training camp held during Christmas Holidays where native Andre Titus, a coach at York College in New York for the past 13 years, joined the local coaches to help with his experience.
Titus was impressed by the talent of the athletes while stressing on the fundamentals of the game and as a result, some of the local players are starting to benefit from scholarships from mainland schools.