Harrison College girls and the Barbados Community College (BCC) boys captured the respective Massy Stores Girls’ And Boys’ Volleyball Schools League titles when the finals were played on Wednesday at the Wildey Gymnasium.
Both teams survived first games challenges which they shook off to pick up the crowns in straight sets. Harrison College repeated as champions with a win over Queen’s College 26-24, 25-19.
Captain Ashley Jordan, who has been outstanding in division one volleyball, led HC tremendously in spite of talented opponents on Queen’s College’s side of the net. However, the supporting performance from Janaiyah Drakes and Donnique Alleyne proved superior for Harrison College.
Harrison College played a system of feeding the ball to Jordan wherever she was on the court, and by using off-speed shots or crunching hits, she proved the difference between the two teams. Even so, Alleyne and Drakes showed their worth with solid defence as well as equally impressive attacks.
Queen’s College with Aaliyah Durant, Rihanna James, Janae Boyce and Janina James had promised to offer a serious challenge for the title. However, only the pint-sized Mayers proved consistent in attack as Queen’s College folded to the greater aerial assault from the repeat queens.
BCC also proved the superior force dismissing The Lodge School 25-19, 25-22. Lodge lost the plot in the first game after slipping from 16-14 to 16-23 with Amory Hinkson holding his serve to doom the St John opponents.
The battle between Omari Taylor of BCC and his younger brother Che Taylor on the Lodge team proved a separate side show. However, the likes of Omari, Akiel Stoute and Jherad Morris-Sealy denied what Lodge, Che and the talented Kadeem Morris had to offer.
Stoute and Morris-Sealy held Lodge at bay with some demoralising blocks and then that duo, along with Pierre Nurse, made a mockery of their opponents’ net defence thundering the ball into Lodge’s court with consistent accuracy.
After throwing away their advantage in the first game, Lodge had looked down and out in the second before a late surge brought respectability to their score line, but could not affect their volleyball cabinet which has remained locked for over 15 years. (KB)b
