The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE team of Muller Petit and Renaldo Knowles proved why they are one of the best combos in the country to play beach volleyball.

Reuniting to play in the Scotiabank Defenders’ fourth annual beach volleyball tournament on Saturday at the Bahamas Football Association’s beach soccer pitch at the foot of the Sir Sidney Poitier bridge, they outplayed the Hall of Fame pair of Byron Ferguson and Prince Wilson for the men’s title.

The final score was 21-14 and 21-19.

Winning the ladies’ team was KDH, made up of Laval Sands and Quey Wilson. They got a surprise in the final when they took on the first time team of Shakera Cooper and Lakeshia Albury, the Dynamic Divas from Abaco.

Their scores were 21-19 and 22-21.

Tournament director DeVince Smith said for the first tournament for the year, the team participation could have been better, but for those who showed up, they made it an interesting event.

“I liked what I saw. I was really impressed with the team that contacted from Abaco. They came down and they participated,” he said. “They played above what I expected. They came here and beat out a lot of locally based teams, which is very encouraging. We have to go to these Family Islands and sort out the talent there and not just rely on the locally based talent. From what I have seen today, I think the Family Islands need to be given their due just in representing the country. So we will continue to put on more local tournaments and we can have more Family Island teams come out and compete.”

Men’s Championship

In what turned out to be the two best teams matched against each other, Petit and Knowles showed that they wanted the title a little more than Ferguson and Wilson. They jumped on their opponents from the start in both sets and they never relinquished their leads.

“It’s a combination that’s been working, but I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t have too much competition,” Petit said. “We have a tournament coming up in the Cayman Islands (April 22-27), so it was good to get in this competition before we travel.

“Prince and Byron, as usual, gave us a good push, but we wished that we could do this more often rather than every blue moon because we don’t get to do this much.”

For Knowles, it was good to put together the solid performance as they did in the final because they were really sluggish in the preliminary rounds.

“We haven’t been playing for a while. We’ve just gotten back to being on the sand, so I think it was good overall and I’m happy for the outcome,” Knowles said. “Hopefully when we go away, we can make a strong showing, be more consistent and put the Bahamas on the map once again.”

Knowles and Petit are hoping to get on course for shot at qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil after falling short for 2012 in London, England. Their counterparts, Wilson and Rolle have been making their impact playing professionally indoors in Europe.

“We fell short. It was disappointing that we didn’t win this tournament, but you can’t win them all,” Wilson said. “It’s the first time we played since last summer, so it’s going to take some time for us to get back in sync and get that chemistry back on the court.

“We played pretty good throughout the tournament. The competition wasn’t that high. We didn’t get the competition until we got to the final. With more time we will be there. I just wished we had more tournaments like this so we can play more. But congratulations to Muller and Renaldo.”

Third place went to Jon Isaacs and Je’Vaughn Saunders.

Ladies’ Championship

Sands and Wilson knew that they had to put their best feet forward in order to prevail over the unknown team of Cooper and Albury. Playing together for the first time, Sands and Wilson prevailed as they had to dig down deep for their 21-19 and 23-21 victory.

“We played a pretty good game for the first time together. Even though we were making mental errors, we came back and did what we had to do,” Sands said. “I was surprised by the girls from Abaco. They played some good defence and their serves were awesome. But we ended up coming out on top.”

Sands said she’s hoping that her and Wilson will be selected to represent the Bahamas in a tournament in July in Trinidad & Tobago because they are a good team, but they just need to put in some more work.

Wilson, on the other hand, said playing beach volleyball for the first time, she couldn’t find a better partner in Sands.

“She kept reminding me of the rules through the game while we were playing,” Wilson said. “The girls from Abaco had some good defence. I was surprised how they had the fundamentals down pack.”

Wilson had a slight injury, but her big sister, Tia Wilson, was on hand to help her recover.

As close friends of DeVince Smith, Albury said when they saw the tournament on line, they made the decision to enter to test their skills.

“I think we did a pretty good job considering that we didn’t have much training for the tournament,” said Albury, who hails from Cherokee Sound. “We pushed hard to the end, unfortunately we didn’t come out with the win.”

The duo have never played beach volleyball before, but they play in Central Abaco where the court was just recently refurbished with lights.

Cooper, who hails from Treasure Cay, said despite the fact that they never played, they did excellent.

“We learnt the rules at the last minute and we just kept it in our heads and played together as a team,” Cooper said. “So I think we did excellent. We had it right in our hands, but they played better. The tournament was good. It was a good experience for us. We’re looking to come back in the future.”

Third place in the tournament went to the sisters combo of Eugenia and Annaya Adderley.

In the under-20 division, the Dread Baron team of Rajhal Moxey and Gaege Smith used the tournament to prepare for their upcoming trip to Trinidad & Tobago for the Youth Olympic Qualifying beach tournament April 10-14.

They won the title, followed by the A and J Grand Bahama combo of Antonio Jennings and Johnathan Garland. El Capetian, comprising of Anthony Misiewiky and Eugene Stuart, was third.