T&T senior women’s volleyballers will go after an unprecedented seventh straight crown in the final of the 17th Senior Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship against hosts Suriname at the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall tonight. First serve is at 7 pm.
This after both teams improved to a perfect 2-0 record and ten points when matches continued yesterday morning to end round-robin group play.
Winners over the Bahamas, 26-16, 25-12, 25-12, in its opener on Saturday morning, T&T, led by Renele Forde, stormed past the six-time winners and long-time rival Barbados, 25-12, 25-14, 25-15, in its second match on Saturday night.
Once again, Channon Thompson, coming off impressive campaigns in both France and the Philippines, was the main scorer for T&T with 15 points, inclusive of 11 spikes and four aces while Turkey-based middle-blocker Sinead Jack added 11, comprising of eight spikes, two aces and one block.
Philippines-based Darlene Ramdin and Jalicia Ross-Kydd chipped in with seven points while Forde got six.
Overall, it was yet another commanding display from T&T, which did not even utilise Turkey-based scorer Krystle Esdelle, as it outscored the Barbadians 36-10 on spikes, 6-4 on blocks and 11-1 on aces in the 59-minute battle.
However, a disappointing statistic for coach Francisco “Panchee” Cruz was seeing his more experienced unit commit 26 errors to the opposition’s 22.
For Barbados, Shonte Seale was the best scorer with four points while Ashley Marshall and Ashley Jordan got three apiece.
Suriname also won in straight sets for the second match in-a-row, 25-12, 25-23, 25-19, over former two-time winners, the Bahamas, in 66 minutes.
Sundrina Hunsel had a tournament-high 22 points for Suriname and Sigourney Kame, nine in the win, while Melinda Bastian led the Bahamas with ten.
On Saturday night, Suriname made a commanding start beating six-time winners Barbados, 25-12, 25-7, 25-19 in 56 minutes.
Kame, fresh from winning five awards including Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the just concluded CAZOVA Under-23 Women’s Championship in Bonaire, continued her fine form with 11 points and Hunsel got 11.
Barbados’ Shonte Seale was the main scorer in the match for her team but there were 21 opponent errors out of the 38 points for the Barbados unit.
Tonight, the “Calypso Spikers”, champions in 1996 under former coach Macsood Ali, followed by wins in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017, all under the supervision of Cruz, will start as favourites.
Both, T&T and Suriname, by virtue of reaching the final have qualified to next year’s Women’s NORCECA Continental Championship.
Fixtures
Today
Bronze medal match – Barbados vs the Bahamas, 5 pm
Final – T&T vs Suriname, 7 pm
