Ten-time kings of Caribbean volleyball Barbados suffered a meltdown in the finals of the 15th Caribbean Volleyball Championships to hand hosts Trinidad & Tobago their second crown in front of a boisterous crowd in the Jean Pierre Complex on Sunday night.
The Bajans were upstaged by a team they had defeated in the preliminaries, losing 25-22, 23-25, 18-25, 19-25.
It was a reverse of 2006, when Barbados won their last title, overturning a previous loss to T&T to deny them in the finals.
Barbados’ key hitters Shawn Simpson and Fabian Cox made a stuttering start but junior player Jabarry Goodridge who is based in the United States, scored with tremendous success to keep the first set on a knife’s edge before Barbados edged home.
Facing the danger of losing at home, T&T dug deep and blocked strong, handing Cox and Simpson back-to-back rejections early in set two as coach Ludger Niles was forced to call a timeout at 1-6.
Setter Saleem Ali then got Trinidad’s running game on the go, leaving Barbados jumping at air as Simon Blake, Marc-Honore and Ryan Stewart hammered the court.
Barbados battled back to a score of 21-23 before allowing T&T set point on a “no man” set by middle Ammuniki Wood.
Two monster kills by Simpson crept the score to 23-24, forcing a T&T timeout which was justified when Cox served out to even the contest. However, the equality ended in that second set as the Trinis continued to rough up the Bajans, rushing to a 13-7 lead.
Barbados’ plight worsened when setter and captain Alain London chased after a wayward pass, twisted his ankle and had to be stretchered off with at 15-20.
Reserve Ronald Rice came on and proved his value but in spite of locking the scores from 13 up to 18, Barbados could not halt the Trinidadians on the court or in the stands.
Simpson, who won the Best Opposite award, scored 12 points with Goodridge adding 11 and Cox nine.
MVP, Best Scorer and Best Spiker Blake and Ryan Stewart scored 18 points each, with Honore contributing 13 and Mikheil Hoyte adding 12.
It was a special triumph for T&T captain Nolan Tash who announced his retirement after representing his country for two decades.
Coach Niles pointed to the pressure taking a toll on his team, especially after London’s injury.
“Trinidad played the better game and the support of the crowd gave them the lift. However, many of the experienced players committed errors at the wrong time which affected our play,” he said.
“Overall, our guys were not consistent enough with our serves and blocking, while we did not have the kind of performance from Shawn Simpson that we hoped for.”
The coach, however, expressed satisfaction with the prospects of the juniors like Chioke Holder, Wood and Goodridge who proved to be worthy starters on the senior team.
