T&T senior national women's volleyballers Darlene Ramdin and Delana Mitchell have enjoyed a successful start to their professional careers with Finnish Division One club, Pieksamaki Volley for the 2012/2013 season. The two players who signed eight-month deals with the club through their agent, Jonathan Scott, who works with JVSE Promotions, a volleyball agency in the USA, have both played pivotal roles in helping their team to a 2-0 start in the Finland SM-Liga as the top flight women's volleyball league is called.
On Saturday last, Ramdin tallied 12 points and Mitchell six as Pieksamaki Volley outlasted Viljandi Metall 28-26, 20-25, 19-25, 25-17, 15-7 in one hour, 55 minutes at Urheilutalo Hall, Pieksamaki. The topscorer for Pieksamaki Volley was Quincy Verdin with 18 points while Tara Lahti also got 12 for the winners in the match which saw Ramdin, a former St John University's captain, being named as the "Most Energetic Player" and gaining "Most Valuable Player" points which will be added up at the end of the season to determine the league's overall top player.
A day later, Ramdin topscored with 13 points while Lahti, Mitchell and Verdin each added eight points to lead their club past Women Volley Rovaniemi 26-24, 25-17, 25-18 in 76 minutes. For the losers, Karollina Kyllonen had a team-high of 14 points, while Jana Jaudzema and Johanna Pekkarinen added ten. Ramdin was also part of the "Calypso Spikers" squad which captured a fourth straight senior Caribbean Women's Volleyball Championship title in St Croix, US Virgin Islands in July after participating in both the Women's London Olympic Games Continental Qualifiers in Mexico as well as the Pan American Cup, also in Mexico.
During her final year at St John's University, she was named to the All-Big East Conference Second Team for the second-consecutive season, and was a Lowe's Senior Class award finalist and the focal point of the Red Storm attack.
She eclipsed the 300-kill mark for the second time of her career, finishing the campaign with 355 total kills for a team-high 3.05 kills per set average.
She last played for the senior team at the Norceca Women's London Olympic Games Continental Qualifiers in Mexico as well as the Pan American Cup, also in Mexico, earlier this year, before missing the Caribbean Championship due to illness. However, over in Poland, the T&T quartet of Channon Thompson, Sinead Jack, Krystle Esdelle and Rheeza Grant made a losing start to the Plus Liga Kobiet ten-team championship with their AZS Bialystok club, going under in straight sets to Muszyna, 0-3. This is the third season for Thompson and Jack with the Polish club, while Esdelle, who was formerly attached to Germany's Schweriner SC, and Grant joined the club last month. Next up is a meeting with Dabrowa Gornicza on Saturday.
