Dates set for beach tourney

Mon, Oct 3rd 2011, 10:17 AM

An official date has been set for the second round of the regional beach volleyball tournament, leaving the country's four-man squad with less than two months to train.
The team of Muller Petit, Renaldo Knowles, Byron Ferguson and Prince Wilson, waited a year for the executives of the North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) to release the dates for the Sub Zonal Olympic Beach Volleyball Tournament. They were hoping to get word earlier in the year so that they can better prepare themselves for the sizzling sands event, which is a qualifier for the 2012 Olympic Games. The December 4-5 hosting was confirmed by 1st vice president in the Bahamas Volleyball Federation (BVF) Joseph Smith over the weekend. It was welcoming news for Head Coach DeVince Smith, who noted that the team members are now in season and should be in tip-top shape for the event which will be held in the Cayman Islands.
"We've been waiting on them to release the dates of the tournament for a while now," said Smith. "We are happy that a date and venue has been confirmed. The guys are eager and ready to play. I am not sure if the players have heard the great news as yet, but I am sure that when they do they will be ecstatic."
Petit and Knowles represented The Bahamas as Team 'A' and Ferguson and Wilson was Team 'B', in the preliminary round. Even though the teams are divided into two, the points accumulated are tallied as one.
The Bahamas, which was ranked fifth in men's play, defeated the fourth seeded Barbados squad of Elwyn Oxley, Winston Gittens, Hughly Sealy and Jamaal Nedd, to move onto the finals. Oxley and Gittens were Team 'A' while Sealy and Nedd represented Team 'B' for Barbados. In the finals of the preliminary round, The Bahamas met up with Trinidad and Tobago, the host, defeating them for top honors.
Smith said: "I believe that the players are going to be very strong because the New Providence Volleyball Association (NPVA) is currently going on. I think that they will be able to make the adjustments very quickly from the hard court to the sands. They did it last year and the results were positive. As far as training is concerned, I don't have an official date as yet. I intend to meet up with the players first, have a meeting to discuss and decide on a training schedule."
The female squad of Laval Sands and Tia Wilson did not qualify for the second round. As a team, they finished fifth.
The official dates brings hope to the junior national female team, who are still awaiting word for the regional tournament, in their age division. No host or date has been set as yet. The team was supposed to travel to compete this summer but their segment of the regional tournament was postponed. The junior male squad competed and placed fifth. That championship was held in Jamaica.

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