By Morissa Lindsay
Defending double crown champions Christ Church Foundation School (CCFS) are one step closer to repeating as kings and queens of the National Sports Council Senior Volleyball Competition after they won their respective semifinal matches this afternoon at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium.
CCFS girls pulled off a 2-1 thriller over Alleyne School 25-23, 11-25, 15-9 in the first semi-final encounter on court. While the boys from Church Hill did not disappoint either as they trounced Barbados Community College (BCC) 25-19 and 25-22 to reach the final.
All was not lost for BCC because their female team ensured they reached the final against CCFS scheduled for Wednesday, December 14th after they won 25-19 and 25-19 against Harrison College. Meanwhile the St. Michael School (SMS) came from a set down 12-25, 25-18 and 25-12 to defeat Queen’s College.
All four semi-final matches were keenly contested with lots of excitement from the supporters who cheered on from the stands.
CCFS captain by national player Serena Edwards who is also a member of Deacons Volleyball Club led from the front against Alleyne School in the girls’ showdown.
After CCFS won the opening set 25-23, Alleyne School led by Carah Watson who also plays in the Barbados Volleyball Association competitions for Warrens Club fought back well in the second set. The girls from Belleplaine, St. Andrew showed lots of determination and were up 17-6 on their way to equalising the game.
The two best of three sets match however was halted briefly at that stage after Alleyne’s captain Watson came off limping with a foot injury. After a few minutes the game resumed and CCFS began to pull things back but only for so long because Alleyne built on their momentum and went on to capture the second set and forced a decisive third.
Under the command of referee Andrew Culpepper and his assistant Haile Emmanuel-Turney, the third set began and CCFS scored first compliments Dessani Waithe, another experienced player who represents Development Volleyball in Motion Club.
As the set progressed the scores were locked 3-3 and McKayla Beckles in the front court for CCFS broke the deadlock when she spiked one down the middle to give her team a slim 4-3 advantage.
With CCFS breaking serve and secured possession of the ball, a fired up Sierra Rayside registered three straight aces to give CCFS team a solid 7-3 lead and forced Alleyne School to call a timeout.
On resumption Alleyne managed to score a point but it was not enough to stop CCFS from moving ahead 8-5 and clinched a comfortable three point advantage when both teams switched sides.
The good thing for CCFS is that they had Edwards serving and she did not disappoint, serving two consecutive aces. Alleyne was yet again forced to call timeout but it made no difference because CCFS were riding on a high level of confidence.
Alleyne tried to score the occasional points but they had a lot of catching up to do and in the end they were left feeling disappointed as CCFS emerged victorious.
In the second semi-final clash, BCC ladies captained by Shaina Bradshaw, a member of Chargers Club led them to an impressive showing over Harrison College who
struggled oftentimes with their serves and returns.
The boys semi-finals was also entertaining and in the opening match, just when many thought SMS were down and out they pulled out all the stops and stunned Queen’s College 2-1 thanks to some wonderful attacking plays.
Meanwhile in the other semi-final match-up, CCFS males did not allow BCC to stop them from reaching the finals after they stamped their authority with some wonderful kills and well placed serves.
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb
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