Haiti strolled to their first title at the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Junior Men's Championship after cruising past host Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-15) at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena.

With the win in the final match of the tournament, the Junior Siecle-coached Haitians, who ended in second spot in 2017/2018 and fourth in 2015, ended with a perfect 4-0 win-loss round-robin record and 18 points, two ahead of runner-up Suriname (3-1) while Jamaica took the bronze medal with a 2-2 record and 11 points with Trinidad and Tobago (1-3) fourth with three points, and winless US Virgin Islands, fifth with a 0-4 record and two points.

The victory for Haiti put them on par with their 2015 Under-21 women's team who won their maiden title in Barbados and secured their ticket to the NORCECA Under-21 Men's Continental Championship to be hosted by Cuba from May 7 to 15, 2023.

Suriname secured a surprisingly comfortable 3-0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-18) triumph over Jamaica in a battle of teams with 2-1 win-loss records for the second spot.

With the win, the Antoine Vliet-coached Suriname, ended their four-match round-robin schedule in the five-team winner-take-all competition with a 3-1 record and 16 points to earn their best finish in the tournament history.

Despite the loss, Steve Davis, coach of Jamaica said he was very proud of his players because he knew that they worked very hard in the limited time they had to prepare.

"Today, I have no blame for the boys even though I think that we contributed to our defeat by not having a good serving, passing or attacking game. Those errors happens when there is a lack of preparation and that is what happened with us, so to come away with a medal, is still a positive and something for us to work with," Davis said.

Estakend Beauvoir of Haiti capped off a memorable tournament for his team by being named as the "Most Valuable Player.”

Beauvoir was very influential throughout the five-team round-robin tournament and picked up the "Best Scorer" accolade.

Haiti captain Dieulengy Relis who enjoyed a very productive tournament to lead his team to the historic crown copped the"Middle Blocker 1" award.

Tournament runners-up Suriname who also enjoyed their best finish at this age-group had two awardees in Jonovan Wijngaarde (Outside Hitter 1), and Jason Lesperans (Best Digger) while US Virgin Islands had four award recipients in captain Gabriel Rosa (Best Setter), De Andrae Tylor (Middle Blocker 2), and Taj Bales (Best Receiver and Best Libero).

Third-placed Jamaica received three awards thanks to Damion Smith (Best Server and Best Opposite Player), Kenneth-Roy Clarke (Outside Hitter 2).

Jamaica swept past host Trinidad and Tobago 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-13) to register their first win of the 2021 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association Junior Men (Under-21) Championship round-robin series at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena.

The win lifted Jamaica to a 1-1 record after two matches and six points in the five-team round-robin winner-take-all pool, one ahead of Suriname (1-0) while Haiti with four points (1-0) and T&T (1-1) with three points are next and US Virgin Islands, fifth with two points and a 0-2 start.

Following the win, Steve Davis, coach of the winning Jamaica team said his team was delighted to get among the winning column after the tough start to the tournament.

"Our travel arrangements and late get in time didn't help us much in our first game and we were able to get some rest after that and managed to give off a better performance in this match,” he said.

"We also adjusted our game plan as we were able to watch part of the Trinidad and Tobago and US Virgin Islands match last night and devised a game plan which we executed good enough for the win,” he added.

Team captain, Andrae Robb said he was very satisfied that his team was able to rebound from the loss and get a win against the host country.

"We knew from watching Trinidad and Tobago play their first match it was not going to be an easy challenge for us, but with the rest we got we were able to come out and do much better and we are hoping that we can continue to improve in each match."

Haiti made a winning start to its bid to claim the title left vacant by six-time winners Barbados when they came from behind to defeat Jamaica 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-16, 25-21) in their 2021 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association Junior Men (Under-21) Championship round-robin opener at the Southern Regional Indoor Sports Arena.

Haiti’s coach Junior Siecle was a satisfied man afterwards.

"I'm very pleased with the win but going forward we still have to make some corrections as I'm not satisfied with our blocking," he said.

Meanwhile, team captain Dieulengy Relis said the team didn’t start as well as they would have preferred but they are happy to come away with the win.

“We started off a bit slow but then we found our momentum and played much better as the match went along," he said.

"We are very happy to start with the win, and now we must continue to improve to win our other matches as well.”

Jamaica’s coach Steve Davis said fatigued played a major role in his team’s performance.

"We are not ones to make excuses but we reached in late and also had a long stay in immigration,” he said.

"Apart from that, we also had little preparation time at home due to exams and we know that our players can improve their level of play and will improve in the next match.”

Andrae Robb captain of Jamaica also said he felt his team was badly affected by their travel schedule and a lack of confidence.

"We know where we fell short in this match and we need to improve for our next encounter," he said.

Haiti will take on Suriname on Saturday, July 9 at noon in the five-nation round-robin winner-take-all competition while Jamaica will have a short turn-around as it plays host Trinidad and Tobago on Friday.

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