The unexpected results in the final preliminary games of the Goddard Enterprises Limited senior volleyball knockouts have forced the Barbados Volleyball Association (BVA) to put the competition on hold and start the league season on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the Juniors who had battled powerhouses Coverley Medical Centre Deacons and Gourmet Express Progressive to five sets in earlier matches, suffered a surprise straight sets loss to Foundation United at the Wildey Gym, which created headaches for the organisers.
The Juniors, minus an injured captain in Andriy Stapleton and setter Paul Doughty, folded to Foundation 16-25, 22-25, 23-25, which allowed Foundation an eleventh hour admission to the play-offs.
Ironically, while the Juniors battled inconsistency in almost every facet of the game, a former Junior player Darien Seale launched Foundation to their second and most vital win for 2014.
That victory handed Foundation the play-off spot which the Juniors seemed destined to clinch.
The loss also meant that the blown off game between Cawmere and Deacons will have to be replayed or awarded to one of the teams to determine the match-ups in the play-offs.
With a disciplinary hearing to be convened to deal with that match and with the semi-finals originally slated to take place on Sunday, the decision was then made to put the knockouts on hold and to start the league.
A hearing would take almost a week and then the teams would have to be allowed time to file any subsequent appeals or protests.
With the BVA struggling to accommodate their 2014 fixtures with constricting slots at the Wildey Gymnasium, the league committee could ill afford to pass on any available times to play matches.
Ironically, on Wednesday night Cawmere lost their match by default to Progressive. Cawmere did find a starting six eventually, but that was five minutes after their game was blown off and forfeited.
