QUEEN’S COLLEGE (QC) girls won the double crown in the Super Centre/JB’s Inter-School Volleyball Competition, and their boys made history by winning their first ever title.
QC girls added the knockout crown to their league title with a facile 25-13, 25-10 over the Barbados Community College (BCC) at the Wildey Gymnasium on Wednesday, while the boys beat Christ Church Foundation School 25-17, 25-10. Even with captain Vanessa Bobb out with a back strain, the combination of pint-sized Barbados Junior libero Janina Mayers, who hammered BCC with some crisp spikes; Dominique Best, Gabriella Mitchell, Kayla James, Ashley Marshall and setter Niara Forde proved too powerful.
The 2013-14 sports season has proved to be a golden streak for QC with Bobb, Forde and Marshall appearing in netball, basketball and volleyball finals and earning titles in volleyball and basketball.
Earning titles, however, seemed elusive for the QC boys in spite of a squad filled with junior nationals as they had met and lost their last five finals to Coleridge and Parry (CP). However, an upset semi-final win by Christ Church Foundation had eliminated defending champions CP from the finals.
In spite of a strong start from Junior Caribbean MVP Andriy Stapleton, QC held the upper hand at 24-10 thanks to the play of pint-sized setter Chad Callender and his attacking twin brother Brandon, along with the aggressive Adam Niles, Nathaniel McClean, Korey Denny and Yvan Grant.
However, true to the finals form, QC then started to stutter as Shamar Bishop held his serve for Foundation while QC’s spikers found all kinds of imaginative ways to lose points. A net infringement by Foundation saw QC limping home 25-17, with Foundation buoyed by their late surge.
That boost proved to be irrelevant as QC regained their attacking and defensive form to romp to an easy 25-10 in the second set to end over two decades of volleyball drought.
