Antigua and Barbuda settle for silver in ECVA Beach Volleyball Tournament

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By Samuel Peters

Antigua and Barbuda’s women’s volleyball team of Jassania Joseph and Jaya Carr brought home silver after losing to Dominica in the final of the 2023 ECVA Under-19 Beach Volleyball Championship held in St Kitts over the weekend.

The youngsters showed great fight and skill but, unfortunately, were not able to overcome the girls from the Nature Isle. The scores were 18-21 and 15-21 in favour of the Dominicans.

On day one of preliminaries, Antigua and Barbuda lost their opening encounter to Anguilla 18-21 and 15-21 but prevailed in their second game of the day against Bermuda to win in a three set match 21-18, 21-6 and 15-0. 

However, they faced a testing matchup against St Lucia, in the quarterfinal, who were no walkover for the Antiguans. They won by a mere two points in the first set 21-19 and in the second set were forced to go past the normal 21-set point to win 23-21.

Antigua and Barbuda showed their resilience after losing to Anguilla in the preliminaries. In their second knockout game, the Antiguans won 21-17 and 21-14 to secure a place in the final against the Dominicans who had won all their encounters to that stage. However, the dominant Dominicans were just too good as they effortlessly beat the Antiguans 21-18 and 21-15 to be crowned champions.

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Members of team Antigua and Barbuda, Jassania Joseph (left) and Jaya Carr accept their second place trophy from a member of the ECVA.

The Under-19 men’s team of Khaliq Joseph and Miguel Pena Lugo did not have a great outing, but represented the country well. They lost their first match to St Lucia, 18-21 and 16-21. They then played the host nation, St Kitts and Nevis in their second match and, though a courageous attempt at a win taking the game into three sets, they ended up on the losing side. They lost the match 2-1 with scores of 21-16, 11-21 and 15-6.

After pushing the home team into a third set in their previous encounter, the Antiguans met the home-side again two and a-half hours later, losing this encounter 18-21 and 15-21. With three preliminary losses, Antigua and Barbuda had to play for ninth place where they met the British Virgin Islands and were victorious, beating them 22-20 and 21-16.

The tournament was used to help teams to qualify for the Youth U21 FIVB World Championships in 2025. The Windward Island territories demonstrated their dominance with St Lucia winning the male title, while Dominica won the female title.

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