After accepting the challenge put forth by the under-23 players in the New Providence Volleyball Association (NPVA), the senior members are ready for today's match.
The challenge, set for tonight at 7 p.m. in the D.W. Davis gymnasium will feature the majority of the college base players who will take on national standouts like Cheryse Rolle, Melinda Bastian, Shedrick Forbes, Prince Wilson and Renaldo Knowles. The one-day tournament, being hosted by the NPVA is a friendly rivalry designed to give players in the league more play.
Tournament organizer Jason Saunders said more challenges like this are planned, and this particular tournament is overdue. He noted that the league will host more tournaments next year as preparations in time for the upcoming Caribbean Volleyball Championships (CVC). The biennial regional championships will be held in the summer of 2012, in St. Croix. The last time the senior women's team played, they finished sixth, and the men were third.
"The tournament is for all current and former national team players," Saunders confirmed. "There will be two games. These two games were requested by all the players. They want to see which age group reigns supreme. Even though it is for bragging rights, the intent is to try and get more of our senior players and national team members playing on a consistent basis. None of the teams get a lot of games in, so we thought this would be challenging for all of them.
"If you look at the talent in the league, you will be surprised [at] the level these players are on. They just need the extra play. There are some good players on the junior side who are capable of making the senior national team, but they are sometimes overshadowed by the senior players."
There will be two games in the first challenge. The women will take to the court first followed by the men, at 8 p.m.
Top outsider on the women's side, Cheryse Rolle believes that the seniors will take the game and win the challenge in three sets. She said that there's nothing the junior players can do.
Rolle said: "We won't play with them. This is the first challenge and we want to send a message. You know the message is going to be clear. We need to show them that the seniors rule the courts. I must admit that we have some talented young players, so I know they won't let us just come there and roll over them, but we also have some very good senior players.
"This challenge is for bragging rights and we can't let the juniors hold anything over us. We welcomed them into the program, but I don't think that they've been initiated properly. So the beating tonight will be the initiation phase."

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