ST JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda, October 22, 2024: In dominating style, St Lucia stopped Bermuda in their tracks to take the gold medal in the 2024 Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Senior Women’s Championships here at the YMCA Sports Complex.
St Lucia, winners of the title in 2022, maintained their hold on the top spot, outlasting the Bermudans 3-0 (25-10, 25-22, 25-19).
Bermuda threatened on occasions in the second and third sets with slender leads, but St Lucia showed their experience and will to win, thwarting the momentums.
Having suffered at the hands of Bermuda in the preliminary phase of the championships, St Lucia avenged the 2-3 loss, by winning in straight sets.
Apart from claiming gold, St Lucia earned the right to be ECVA’s representative at the 2025 Continental Championships.
St Lucia’s Head Coach- Kendell Charlery, while accepting that Bermuda was a formidable foe, believed his team was superior.
“It is a great feeling to win to retain the title … Bermuda gave us a run for our money in the first round but we were hungrier… They (Bermuda) played pretty good in the final but we came out with fire”, Charlery opined.
Charlery disclosed that it was a deliberate plan to go hard at Bermuda from the start of the decisive final.
“That was the plan… We stopped their attackers and we did that from the very first ball… We took a lead from each and every set and we tried to maintain it and that was the game plan”, Charlery revealed.
Winning the title and looking ahead to the next sojourn, Charlery commented: “It means a lot… We have a good group of good players back home who are ready to train for the Continental Championships…We have some pretty young players coming up”.
Losing Coach of Bermuda- Shalae Rae was happy with the overall performance with her team.
“I am proud of the team… Tonight we came up against a good team… We are a young team with a good future…We did a check on the stats with our team and the average age is 19.9 years”, Rae commented.
The Bermuda Head Coach underscored that going back with a silver medal serves as a good fillip for the team as well as Volleyball in her country.
Final Standings: 1. St Lucia 2. Bermuda 3. Grenada 4. Antigua and Barbuda 5. St Maarten 6. Anguilla
