The battle for the dungeon proved more competitive than the fight for the throne when the Cooperators General Insurance volleyball knockouts preliminaries continued at the Wildey Gym Wednesday night.
In a face-off between last year’s finalists, Brydens Rockets shot down the defending champions Freekz Customz Chargers in straight sets, 25-16, 25-22, 29-27, to end Chargers’unbeaten run from the 2010 season.
Shari Matthews and Anicia Wood proved too potent for Chargers who, without the injured Dania Hamilton, lacked an aggressive wing attack.
The counter from Sharon Bovell and former Rocket Avara Brown had looked like extending the contest when Chargers moved to 24-21 with both Matthews and Wood in the back court.
However, Matthews served and then blasted the defended balls out of the backcourt for the Rockets to surge and triumph 29-27.
Safe Carlton looked clear leaders in the race from the cellar after leading Plus Club United in the first three sets with former Barbados athlete Ayesha Maycock and Shakera Jack pounding the passive Club.
With Club United lacking any consistent attack, the contest should have ended in straight sets.
However, thanks to Carlton’s playing style of meaningful donation of points to their opponents, Club gratefully accepted two sets before losing 12-25, 20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 4-15.
In the men’s division, Chargers stopped the Juniors 25-20, 21-25, 25-8, 25-14. After being stung by losing the second set, Chargers mauled the Juniors at eight in the fourth.
Deacons defeated Progressive 25-22, 17-25, 25-15, 25-21 with Kyle Brown, Jamaal Nedd and rookie Shaquille Barker hammering Progressive in spite of feisty counters from Fabian Cox and Akeem Payne.
With Reneir Grace absent for the past two games, Progressive continued to look short of front court weapons.
On the other hand, Deacons continued to churn out some arsenal that could attract the attention of the United Nations (UN) inspectors.
Barker ended the match against Progressive with a thunderous spike that earned him numerous fans while signing off the game against an old enemy who had eliminated Deacons from last year’s semi-finals. (KB)
