Seven teams from St. Croix made their way to St. Thomas over the weekend to participate in the 2023 Antilles Varsity Volleyball Tournament and were rewarded for their efforts.
Despite the weather report that the territory would be welcoming an unwanted visitor, Hurricane Tammy, the St. Croix teams made the voyage across the waters believing that the storm would continue to track north and have minimal impact on the United States Virgin Islands. For their efforts, three of the St. Croix teams fought their way into their division championship match.
The female division saw ten teams battling for the title. This was the first tournament of the season for the defending champions, Charlotte Amalie High School Lady Hawks, and also for the top female team in the St. Thomas-St. John district, Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy (VIMSPGIA).
The teams on St. Croix had already competed in two tournaments held on St. Croix, the Good Hope Country Day and the Central High School Varsity Volleyball Tournaments. The Lady Caribs of Central won both of those events and were once again in a familiar place after their hard-fought (19-25; 25-23; 17-15) semi-final win against VIMSPGIA. The Lady Volts were at match point twice in the final set before the Caribs came back and won the deciding set 17-15.
Lady Panthers of Good Hope Country Day secured their place into the finals by defeating the Lady Hurricanes (25-22; 15-25; 15-10). In the final match of the female division, the Lady Panthers finally got over the hump and defeated the Lady Caribs (16-25; 25-20; 15-9), ending Central’s streak of winning local tournaments in the territory this season. Good Hope Country Day’s Sophia Peifer was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
In the male division, Central High School boys were the clear-cut favorite to successfully defend their championship from one year ago. They came into the tournament with an unblemished record, winning gold in the two previous tournaments this season. The Caribs did suffer their first loss of the season at the hands of the Charlotte Amalie High School Chicken Hawks in their final first-round match. The loss seemingly motivated them in their semi-final match against the Panthers of Good Hope Country Day as the Caribs won (25-8; 25-19). Antilles School was the top team in the other male division. They took on upset-minded CAHS in the second semi-final match. The Hurricanes proved to be too strong for the Chicken Hawks as Antilles won in straight sets (25-19; 25-18).
The male championship match was a high-intensity slugfest with both teams’ best players spiking hard, blocking at the net, and serving tough. Central won the first set 25-18. Antilles responded in the second set, winning it 25-19. In the third, Central jumped out to a 5-1 lead. The score was 8-3 Central when both teams switched sides at the midway point of this deciding set. The Hurricanes fought back to even the score at eight all. Hurricanes’ Miguel Toussaint stepped into the serving box and took Antilles to 13 points, just two points shy of victory. Central’s coaches called a timeout, trailing 10-13. Central’s setter Keondre Lewis tipped an errant pass over the net for a point and then proceeded to serve the Caribs all the way to the 15-13 final set victory. Central’s Zamouy Swanston was the male MVP.
The final tournament of this year’s season will be held at the St. Croix Educational Complex, Oct. 27-29.
