The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas will return from the 2014 FIVB World Volleyball Women’s NORCECA First Round Group A qualifiers winless after losing the bronze medal game to host Suriname in three straight sets for the second straight time.

At the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall last night in Paramaribo, Suriname, the host team, which swept the Bahamas in three sets in their round robin game on Saturday night, won the match in one hour and 11 seconds with a 25-23, 25-19 and 25-18 sweep over the Bahamas.

The Bahamas also lost all three of their games in the round robin play in the tournament held from Saturday to Sunday.

Cheryse Bain led the attack for the Bahamas with eight points, while her sister and team captain Krystel Rolle and Tia Charlow both had seven. Katrina Johnson chipped in with six.

Trinidad & Tobago and Guadeloupe played for the gold, but the final score was not available.

The Bahamas, coached by Joseph ‘Joe Mo’ Smith and DeVince Smith, closed out play in the round robin on Sunday morning with 16-25, 25-21, 25-15 and 25-18 loss to Guadeloupe. Melinda Bastian led the attack with 10 points, while Tia Charlow had nine and Cheryse Bain added seven.

A disappointed Smith, on the tournament’s website, congratulated Guadeloupe on its win, saying that most teams in the region can take a page out of their books for their fighting spirit.

“Guadeloupe is a very scrappy team in that they fight for every ball while on the other hand we faltered defensively and played in patches,” he said. “Tonight (Sunday) if we can somehow repeat our performance we had against Trinidad & Tobago in our opening match we will have a chance but it is not going to be easy because we may be short on a key player for that match due to injury.”

Team captain Krystel Rolle said her team’s concentration level for the match was not where it was supposed to be.

“We needed to have a better game in our service reception and setting than we did today while we also committed a lot of errors,” Rolle said. “Nevertheless we still have a chance to finish third and qualify for the next round. We will be hoping to finish the tournament on a high against whichever team we play for the bronze medal.”

On Saturay night in their second game at the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall, the Bahamas lost 25-22, 25-15 and 25-15 to Suriname in just one hour and seven minutes. Cheryse Bain had nine points and Kelsie Johnson added six.

This time, Krystel Rolle said on the website that she was lost for words and not sure what really transpired on the court.

“We started off well in the first and held the lead at 21-19 but from there our game just fell apart completely and we lost it mentally as well,” Bain said.

Coach Smith admitted he was disappointed by his team’s effort but was quick to note all was not lost as the top three teams will advance to the next round.

“It was a total melt down from our performance against T&T this morning,” Smith said.

“I expected our girls to play better this afternoon but we did not respond to Suriname’s challenge at all. At the same time, tomorrow is another day and we can still finish second depending on how the final set of matches go in the preliminary round and play in the final. If not we still have a lot to play for as the third team also qualifies.”

In game one Saturday morning, Trinidad & Tobago knocked off the Bahamas 25-20, 25-15, 21-25 and 25-15 in one hour, 25 minutes after dominating on spikes 31-20 and blocks 10-6. The match lasted one hour and 25 minutes.

Melinda Bastian led the Bahamas with eight points while Kelsie Johnson got six and Cheryse Bain five.

Speaking after the loss, Bahamian captain Krystel Rolle, while not making excuses for her team’s performance, first pointed out her team was a bit fatigued having only arrived in Suriname early Saturday morning from Nassau.

She added: “In addition, we had a major challenge in that we knew the T&T girls were much taller than us and we needed to be quicker on defense and we weren’t at most times.”