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By Samuel Peters
The Antigua and Barbuda Wadadli Spikers captured their third Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Championship on Saturday night, defeating St Lucia in straight sets 25-23, 25-19, 25-15 in a dominant final performance before 200 spectators.
The victory marks Antigua and Barbuda’s third consecutive regional title, having previously defeated St Lucia twice and Dominica once in championship matches. The triumph came just one day after the team suffered a disappointing loss that served as a wake-up call for the defending champions.
“We lost yesterday. We were trying to work out some kinks and all of that was sorted with some hard conversation after the defeat, but we knew what we could do,” said team captain Erwin Mathurin after the match. “We backed ourselves, we made the adjustments and tonight we executed our plan almost flawlessly.”
The championship held special significance for the Wadadli Spikers, who dedicated their victory to a teammate who recently lost his mother but remained committed to playing with the team.
“We’ve had one of our teammates who lost his mother and he committed to still playing,” Mathurin explained. “All of that contributed to the gelling and the fighting spirit from the team. Tonight, we wanted not just to win for ourselves and for our country, but to show him that we are supporting him and we’re behind him 100 percent.”
The emotional backdrop fuelled a determined Antigua squad that controlled the match from start to finish, never allowing St Lucia to gain momentum across the three sets.
While Antigua celebrated the team victory, several individual performances stood out across the tournament. Dominica’s Florent Yahn led all scorers with 82 total points (69 attack, 10 block, 3 serve), despite his team finishing fourth after losing to Grenada 0-3 in the third-place match.
For the champions, Cairon Davis emerged as Antigua’s top scorer with 62 points, while setter Collin Thomas orchestrated the offense with an impressive 5.00 sets per set average. Libero Yashid Auguiste anchored the defense with 3.36 digs per set, the tournament’s highest mark.
The Wadadli Spikers credited their recent training experience in Mexico as crucial preparation for the championship run. The international exposure provided the team with their first taste of high-level competition against professional players.
“We used Mexico as a preparation ground for this tournament,” Mathurin noted. “We really enjoyed the experience because we did not have any prior exposure to that level. Mexico was awesome and everybody came back home with a desire, a burning in their heart, that we want to go back to the next level again.”
The captain emphasized how the Mexico experience transformed the team’s mentality: “Tonight was the epitome of all of that because you could see that every single player, even those who were on the bench and didn’t get a game, supported because everybody wanted to go back again.”
A key theme throughout the championship was Antigua and Barbuda’s commitment to developing young talent alongside their veteran core. The team successfully integrated several younger players into their championship squad while maintaining their winning culture.
“Any good team, you must have a succession plan,” Mathurin explained. “One of the things that we had in mind, the coaches had in mind is that, hey, if they’re young enough and they’re good enough, they can play.”
The captain believes the championship experience will have lasting benefits for the sport’s development in Antigua: “When our youngsters get this exposure and when they get to see what higher level volleyball is like, definitely we hope that will transfer to the local league and across to all of the teams to make our teams and our sport better and bigger in Antigua.”
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