Confident Jamaica hunt CAZOVA final berth today
COACH OF Jamaica’s senior women’s volleyballers, Dr Richard Chong, has declared that his players are full of confidence going into today’s semi-final of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championships at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
Unbeaten Jamaica registered their third straight win at the championships when they defeated Suriname 25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 25-20 for a 3-1 victory on Friday evening.
The hosts are scheduled to face last night’s winners of the match between Martinique and Suriname, starting at 8 p.m today.
Chong told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday that they are very optimistic ahead of today’s semi-final match.
“We are confident,” said Chong. “We have won all our preliminary-round matches and so we are going in on a high, and based on what we have been doing in training, I think we have the potential to make it into the final.”
He added: “They are all up for it (the semi-final) because they are all excited to get there and win, and I am confident that we can beat our opponents.”
NOT A SMOOTH ROAD
However, Chong noted that the road to the semi-finals has not been a smooth one for Jamaica because they have received a number of setbacks during the championships.
“I think we have had a few glitches, and last night (Friday), we had an injury to one of our players and so all of those thing are playing on the team, as well as the pressure of playing at home in front of your home crowd,” Chong said.
Chong called on local fans to come out and support the team in their quest to become Caribbean champions.
“There is a little bit of support but it would be great if there was a lot more because then we can actually intimidate some of the teams with the amount of support, that we can get,” he said.
Meanwhile, defending champions Trinidad and Tobago will play the winners of last night’s game between Guadeloupe and Curacao.
The six-day championships will end tomorrow.