Barbados juniors?gave their standout attacker Jabarry Goodridge a great send-off by scoring a surprise five-set victory over champions Sandy Crest Medical Centre Deacons when the Goddard Enterprises Limited Senior Volleyball Knockouts continued on Wednesday night at the Wildey Gym.
Goodridge, who took the Best Scorer and Best Attacker titles when Barbados won the Junior Caribbean Volleyball Championship in Guadeloupe last month, will head off to the United States on a four-year scholarship on Sunday.
Boldly going where few teams have successfully tread, the Juniors marched to a record 4-0 by stopping Deacons 17-25, 25-14, 25-23, 19-25, 15-12.
Tremendous attack from Goodridge, Ammuniki Wood and Andriy Stapleton proved too potent for Deacons with only Kyle Browne countering with any degree of consistency.
Ironically, Stapleton, who suits up for Deacons when the Juniors are not playing, would have paraded his bourgeoning talent in front of his parents, Andrew Culpepper and Valmay Stapleton, who would have contributed a combined half-century of service to the Deacons club.
While the Juniors’ coach, John Stuart, seemed to conjure up winners in every substitution, Deacons’ coach Ewlyn Oxley never made the best choice of suiting up and inserting himself to try to stop the rampaging Juniors.
The absence of an on-court leader was most obvious in the decider with the Juniors surging from 2-6 to 13-10 with setter Kemar Hinds and Goodridge racking up two aces on a clueless Deacons at that stage.
Any doubts about the colour of Stapleton’s jersey were quelled when he carried the Juniors to game and match point 14-12 with a cross-court cracker before thundering down the line to start the celebrations.
Last year’s losing men’s finalists Chargers advanced to 3-0 by defeating Foundation United 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 with Jamaican Mark Lewis being unstoppable for the winners.
The women’s games ended in straight sets. League queens Warrens Jaguars moved to 3-0 by dumping the winless Club United 25-20, 25-12, 25-19 while Flow Sentry Brokers Deacons crushed Toners, 25-21, 25-11, 25-12.