Bahamas upsets Jamaica and joins Mexico in third round

2009-05-25 14:28:00
Kingston, Jamaica, May 23, 2009 - It is not the way you start but the way you finish. That was the story of Bahamas during the Norceca-D tournament and Saturday night was not different as they recovered from one set down to upset hosts Jamaica 3-1 and join Mexico as teams qualified here to the third round of the 2010 FIVB Men’s World Championship.

The Bahamians, who earlier in the event erupted from a two-set hole against St. Lucia, prevailed against the home team by score of 19-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 and claimed a spot in the next phase of the competition. On Sunday they will meet Mexico, winners over Haiti by score of 25-16, 25-16, 25-20.

The winners of Sunday’s match advance to the Norceca-G (July 6-11) in Puerto Rico while the losers will go to Norceca-H in Cuba (August 12-17).

“We are happy to go home with this victory,” said Raymond Wilson, the coach of Bahamas. “Tomorrow we go against Mexico to try our best. They are not more talented than us in the Caribbean but they are mentally tough and they only focus in volleyball.”

Jack David, the Jamaican coach said: “We still need to overcome those hurdles and win the big games. We play volleyball but we are not there yet. You have to give a lot of credit to Bahamas.”

Shedrick Forbes led three Bahamians with double figures in scoring with 15 points. Byron Ferguson and Renaldo Knowles added 12 and 11 respectively. For Jamaica, Danny Wilson had 19 and Dellan Brown scored 13 points.

Leonardo Manzo led Mexico with 13 points, Tomas Aguilera added 10, including four blocks, and Irving Bricio chipped in 8 points.

“We achieved our goal of qualifying and now we hope to finish first and advance to the tournament in Puerto Rico,” said Jorge Azair, the Mexican coach. “Today we started a little anxious but then we recovered and played pretty well.”

In the first match on Saturday, St. Lucia finally won a match as they beat Cayman Islands 3-0 (25-11, 25-15, 25-14) in a lopsided contest for the fifth place.

St. Lucian Kaji Charles had an excellent overall performance with 11 points that included three blocks and four serving aces. Amobi Armstrong also had 11 tallies. For Cayman Islands Olney Thompson recorded 10 points.