Jamaica and Barbados mine championship awards in 6th Annual UWI Pelican International Invitational Volleyball Tournament

Home team, UWI A (female) and the Deacons (male) from Barbados celebrated victory on Sunday evening after capturing the female and male championship titles at the 6^th Annual UWI Pelican International Invitational Tournament held at the UWI gymnasium at the Mona Bowl from Friday 18^th to Sunday 20^th November.

In a final game against the Agozar Volleyball club from Florida, the UWI A female team recaptured their 2010 championship title in a game that ended 25-22, 25-19, 25-14. “It was a very good game, keenly contested,” says team captain, Cherie Thompson. “We had a little glitch in the beginning but we managed to win the first two sets and kept them under 20. Agozar lost a couple of their players considering their departure arrangements, which was unfortunate, but it was a very good game. We played three sets against Cave Hill also and now we are the victors and we are very proud of that.”

First time contestant, Deacons brought tough competition for Jamaica’s 2007, 2008 and 2009 champions Vikings, and after five sets of strong play, defeated the Jamaican team 25-23, 25-19, 22-25, 9-15.

Deacon’s Coach, Andrew Culppeper says their competitive edge goes way beyond volleyball. “In Barbados we have been the local champions for about 18 years, we started as a group of school boys who just continued loosing and decided to fight and to stick together so we have been planning a long time. We represent the community Deacons, where we come from”, he continues. “It is one of Barbados’ poorer communities. I think that is the key to our fighting spirit. Deacons club is one of the very few good things that come from that community so we fight for more than just us, it goes deep, and we go for families.”

Director of Sports for the University of the West Indies, Dalton Myers emphasized that this year’s tournament brought together some of the region’s best talent. “This was a fantastic event for us,” he says. “Certainly this is what we really wanted. Having teams come from the USA, Barbados, Bahamas and Trinidad showed the diversity we had in the competition this year. If you looked at the final games for both genders, it really reflected the high level of competition that was here. This was definitely a win for the University and for volleyball in Jamaica.

Capturing third place prize in the women’s category was Technocrats from Trinidad, and Cave Hill in fourth. In the Men’s finals, Scotia Defenders captured the third place with UWI A in fourth. This year’s event saw a total 16 teams and culminated with a prize giving ceremony. Each team received

The prize purse this year was US$1000 each for the top Male and Female teams, with additional prizes for both genders for Best Blocker, Setter, Server, Passer, among other.

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