Both Brydens Rockets and Sandy Crest Medical Centre Deacons will be defending their Goddard Enterprises Limited Senior Knockout titles in tonight’s volleyball finals at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.
On Monday night, the Rockets women qualified for the finals with a 25-16, 20-25, 25-15, 25-20 victory over last year’s losing finalists Freekz Customz Chargers, and their new opponents in the finals will be Flow Sentry Brokers Deacons, who stopped Warrens Jaguars 25-23, 22-25, 25-20, 26-24.
Deacons men overcame the Juniors 25-21, 25-23, 25-21 and will face Chargers, who came out with a 19-25, 25-15, 25-11, 25-22 victory over Progressive.
Severe cramp in both legs of key player Shari Matthews threatened to scuttle the Rockets’ bid to repeat as knockout queens.
However, the other half of Rockets’ dynamic duo, six-footer Anicia Wood, found Chargers’ setters to be very charitable. They consistently set the balls in front of the top blocker, allowing Wood and the Rockets to stifle their opponents’ attack.
Even more ludicrous was Matthews’ “stand and deliver” play where, in spite of being unable to move and jump, the former Caribbean MVP simply slapped the ball over the net to score repeatedly.
Tremendous support from setter Andrea Flores and great backup from Cairo Blenman, Nicole Austin and the unpredictable Paula Nicholls helped the Rockets to stop Chargers, who inexplicably underused veteran Sharon Bovell.
Thonya Joseph and Avara Browne made some telling shots for Chargers but young Shani Leacock could not get past Wood, and many errors at the net and in regular play highlighted Leacock’s inexperience.
Deacons’ veteran Julia Lewis found tremendous form while setter Sharleen Browne enjoyed her best game of the season in their four-setter against Warrens.
This was in spite of former Deacons’ big gun Annette Chapman turning out for her first game for her new club.
When former Barbados captain Anthazia Mason went down with an ankle injury in the second set, it did not help the Jaguars’ overall cause even though they won that set 22-25.
Six-footer Rhe-Ann Niles was not at her best and while the stout Talya Beckles tried to take the fight to Deacons, the weak contributions at net from Chapman could not stop the Deacons train.
Deacons’ men exacted vengeance for their preliminary loss to the Juniors as they won in straight sets.
However, the large numbers earned by the Juniors showed the fight which they carried to Deacons once again. That resistance was led by Andriy Stapleton, Ammuniki Wood and Carlos Cyrus, who enjoyed the thrill of hitting some of their opponents with a number of searing spikes, which pleased their growing fan club.
Ironically, Stapleton will be suiting up for Deacons in tonight’s finals against the league kings and last year’s losing finalists Chargers.
On Monday night, Chargers’ men maintained their unbeaten status by coming from a set down to stop Progressive.
Although Chargers’ attack was not as impressive as in previous matches, their daunting blocking machinery was able to shut down an intended revolt from Progressive’s Renier Grace, Fabian Cox and Akeem Payne.
In the preliminaries, Chargers had edged Deacons’ men in five sets while the Rockets had destroyed Deacons’ women in straight sets.