Portugal-based T&T professional Marc-Anthony Honore and Dominican Republic's Jose Caceres tallied ten points each as Technocrats made a winning start to wrest the men's title from Glamorgan with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-17) win over BIG South East Port-of-Spain (SEPoS) in their four-team opener of the Second Caribbean Volleyball League.
This was in the first of four matches on schedule at the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Educational Centre, St Augustine, yesterday.
In addition to Honore, who had six kills and four blocks in his points tally, and Caceres, with four blocks in his total, Elvin Contreras, another Dominican Republic invitee, added nine points laced with eight kills in the 70th-minute win, the first of the five-day tournament hosted by the T&T Volleyball Federation with the support of the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (Norceca).
Overall, it was a solid team effort by Technocrats, which was beaten in the final by Glamorgan in five sets last year with T&T internationals Kevin Nimrod (five points), club captain Sean Morrison (three) and Barbadian Dale Addison (three) all chipping in to help in the 28-20 advantage on spikes, and 10-4 on blocks, while they trailed on service aces 3-4.
SEPoS, which showed signs of a lack of team chemistry on the floor due to the late arrival of its overseas contingent, was led by national and club captai, Nolan Tash who had a match high 11 points, ten of which were kills.
The trio of Suriname's Gino Naarden (five points), Barbadian Fabian Cox (four) and local player Ashton De Murrell (four) were the other main contributors for SEPoS.
In the other men's match last night, Glamorgan began its title defence against Toco Youths.
Last year in the men's decider, Glamorgan battled past Technocrats 26-24, 28-30, 18-25, 31-29, 16-14 inspired by the athleticism of guest player Germany's Sebastian Haehner, the men's tournament Most Valuable Player award winner and libero Jamaal Ferguson of Bahamas.
