The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THEY may not have achieved their desired results in the final standings, but the Bahamas was able to end the beach volleyball competition with a pair of wins at the Commonwealth Youth Games.

The women's team finished seventh overall while the pair of men's teams were 11th and 12th when the event concluded at the National Beach Soccer Stadium.

La'Tavia Braynen and Mechelle Moss got their first win of the tournament with a three-set victory over Tsyan Selvon and Ebony Williams of Trinidad and Tobago in the seventh place match.

Trinidad and Tobago took the first set 21-15 but the Bahamas responded to take the second set 21-18.

With both teams showing signs of fatigue, the third and deciding set was tied at 2-2 and again 5-5 at the first side change. The Bahamas took a 10-8 lead and held serve for the next four points. They took the set and the match, 15-10.

"It feels really good to know that we were able to put all that practiced into our playing and that we were able to get a win in our last game. We can move on and do better next time," Braynen said.

They finished the tournament with a 1-4 record with losses to Australia, New Zealand and twice to England, once in the prelims and again in the quarter-finals.

"It's always a privilege to represent the Bahamas," Moss said. "No matter where we are and we will always try to represent the country to the best of our abilities."

According to both players, a win against another Caribbean team bodes well for the junior programme's standing in the region.

"We can see more of this partnership moving forward, she's a great player and she can do anything they request of us. Beach volleyball is fun but you have to play really hard to accomplish what you set out to do," Braynen said.

Australia won gold, New Zealand took silver and Rwanda won bronze.

On the men's side, both Bahamian teams faced off with Kyle Wilson and Nathan Wert (Bahamas One) getting the 21-15, 21-8 win over James Cleare and Aaron Springer (Bahamas Two) for 11th place and bragging rights.

The first set was tied at 10 before Wilson and Wert moved ahead in the set with four consecutive points. Cleare and Springer went on a run of their own and were within one (15-14) when the teams switched sides and Sweeting's spike tied the game at 15. In a game of runs, Bahamas One would go on another and Wert's kill made it 20-15 at the switch before they eventually took the set.

Bahamas One dominated the second set and led by as much as 12 points en route to the win.

"It was very familiar so it was really easy to read them, we knew exactly what they were going to do," Wilson said. "It felt good to finally get a win. The whole Commonwealth Youth Games experience has been a lot of fun and a real learning experience for us."

Before the win against their regular practice partners, Bahamas One lost to Cyprus, South Africa and Jamaica.

"It was really fun because we practice together all the time and we were just having fun. It was really amazing being a part of the CYG and great training for future tournaments," Wert said.

Bahamas Two suffered losses to Australia, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

"We just went out there and tried to play our best game. The night before we talked to each other and we said we were going to try to go out and have fun but we were not going to take the competition lightly and joke around so we just went out there, tried to make ourselves proud and bring back a win for the country," Cleare said.

"The trash talking started the night before at the dinner table, straight through the game, it's bragging rights but they got the better results. As a player I'm thankful for the Commonwealth Youth Games and it gave us a lot of experience to see where we are internationally. We're technically the best in the Bahamas but when we match up against other countries we see that we fall short in a lot of places so we just need more experiences to better our games."

England went on to win the gold medal, Cyprus took silver and Australia won bronze.

In other event finales on the day, the men's rugby sevens side finished in sixth place after a 43-5 loss to Sri Lanka.

They finished the tournament with an 0-6 record. Samoa won gold with a 10-5 win over England and Fiji took bronze.