Chargers to face Deacons in men’s final 9/18/2013 By Corey Greaves Coach and player, Elwyn Oxley stepped onto the starting line-up for Sandy Crest Medical Centre Deacons, as they cruised into the men’s final of the Goddard Enterprises Limited Senior Volleyball Knockout with a straight sets victory over the Juniors on Monday at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex. The Juniors had defeated Deacons earlier in the tournament but were going to be hard pressed without Jabarry Goodridge to aid in their task. At times during the preliminary round, Deacons appeared to struggle to close out games and allowed their opponents to claw their way back in and sometimes gain momentum. However, Culpepper made sure that was not the case in this match. Starting with what he termed his strongest starting line-up, Deacons seemingly shocked their younger counterparts and led by as many as 18-10 in the first set. Though the Juniors were able to rally and close the deficit to a mere three points, 23-20, Deacons veteran Oxley closed out the set 25-21. In the second set Culpepper did what he has done throughout the tournament, which is rotate his players and allowed the bench players to have an opportunity to get some court time. However, unlike the previous games, as Deacons lead started to dwindle Culpepper put three of his starters he had benched for the second set on stand-by. As the Juniors locked the scores at 21 points apiece, Culpepper inserted those three starters, Oxley, Kyle Browne and Jamal Nedd. With the injection of the starters Deacons plugged the leaking points and closed out the set 25-23. Mistakes plagued the Juniors in the final set and an over pass saw the blocks for Deacons seal the victory in the third set 25-21. Deacons opponents in the final will be League Kings Chargers who bounced back from a set down to defeat Progressive three sets to one. A slow start from Chargers saw Progressive surge ahead to an 11-5 lead in the opening set. Nothing seemed to be going Chargers way as their defence was in shambles and their attack lacked penetration. Progressive, however, took full advantage of this and closed out the first set 25-19. Yet, it was as though they had awoken the sleeping giant that was Chargers. Known for their impressive blocks in the front court, Chargers stepped up their level of play. Progressive had no answer for them and became frustrated during the set which was quickly over 25-15. The onslaught continued in the third set as Chargers denied on countless occasions the attempted attacks by Progressive. Coupled with the violation calls being dished out on their side of the court, Progressive looked in danger of imploding as they went down 25-11 in the third. The fourth set took many different turns as the leads changed hands on countless occasions. At one stage it looked as though Progressive would force a fifth and deciding set, but then Chargers went on a run to level the scores and take the lead. However, Progress came storming back as well and took an 18-17 lead in the dying moments of the game. Nonetheless, a 4-0 run by Chargers put the game out of reach after Progressive had done so well to pull back and it was Mark Lewis to score the winning point and put the Chargers into the final 25-21. The final takes place today at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex. (CG)
Posted on: Wed, 18 Sep 2013 13:58:56 +0000
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