Wolmer’s, JC claim urban area volleyball titles
WOLMER’S GIRLS and Jamaica College (JC) captured the 2024 ISSA urban area under-19 volleyball titles at the UWI Mona Gymnasium yesterday.
In the curtain raiser between Wolmer’s and Hillel Academy it was the Heroes Circle-based school who walked away as champions with a 25-22, 24-26, 18-25, 25-15, 15-7 (3-2) titlewinning performance. Wolmer’s, who started the better of the two seemed to have everything clicking and going in their favour in the opening set, but in the second set they had many unforced errors, and a resurgent Hillel team came storming back into the final. It then took the exploits of MVP Patrina Chisholm to help Wolmer’s crawl back into the match en route to winning the final two sets.
Winning Wolmer’s coach Oneil Ebanks stated that after losing sets two and three, he reminded his team to remain calm in the encounter.
“It’s a dream come true for me as I always look forward to topping any competition (the team competes in). We had our struggles. It wasn’t an easy task to be here, but I’m happy it worked out the way it did. All I did after losing the second and third sets was to tell the ladies to take care of the ball, and in the final two sets, that’s exactly what we did,” he explained.
Damion Gooden, head coach of Hillel Academy, believes that the officiating worked against his team.
“I’m not really disappointed with our performance because it was more about some decisions by the officials as the girls were looking at calls that the referees were not making,” he stated.
In the final of the boys’ under19, JC were made to work hard for their 25-9, 25-22, 27-29, 26-25 (3-1) victory against Papine High. Playing on the big stage for the first time, Papine seemed to have got off to a nervy start, but when they settled, they made life hard for the JC team.
Reflecting on the final, winning coach Owen Leslie said that despite the 3-1 score line, it was a very competitive match.
“The plan was to start hard as you noticed in the first set, but Papine came back when we got relaxed. Our serving was our strong point, but it was a hardfought game, and unforced errors brought them back,” Leslie stated.
Papine’s coach, Demar Ellis, stated that while inexperience played a factor in the final, he was proud of his players.
“Jamaica College had to work extremely hard for the victory. My boys started off a bit nervous because this is just their second year playing volleyball, and they came out and represented well. This team reached extremely far and can be all-island winners in the future,” he said.