Knox College, St Jago looking to top ISSA rural volleyball

Central Zone volleyball champions, St Jago High’s boys and Knox College’s girls, will be seeking the Inter-Secondary Sports Association (ISSA) rural titles when the finals are played at the G.C. Foster College today.

In the girls’ final, set for 1 p.m. Knox College will lock horns with The Manning’s School while the boys’ final between St Jago and Frome Technical is set for a 3 p.m. start time.

Knox College, the defending national champions, had to rely on a fifth set decider to defeat St Jago for the ISSA Central Zone girls’ title at the UWI Mona Bowl last Friday.

After a close battle, they eventually beat their opponents 15-8 to clinch the tie 3-2. Colin Rose, head coach of Knox College, stated that while nerves could have played a part he was pleased that his players came out on the winning side.

“We started off very slowly but we picked up the pace in the third set and that carried through until the fifth set. We were let down by our serves midway through the game. I’m not sure if was due to nerves because we actually have good servers. We picked up after a while and eventually became victorious. This is extremely important because we are defending zone and rural champions, so this is a plus going forward,” Rose explained.

St Jago, after losing the first set, managed to compose themselves eventually to defeat Oracabessa High 21-25, 28-26, 25-22 and 25-23 to take the boys’ title 3-1.

Byron Martin, head coach of St Jago, believes his team’s relentless attack gave them the edge over his opponents as Oracabessa.

“I knew Oracabessa are a strong team but if you are attacking they will begin to make mistakes. The team did that and was successful. There were times when we relaxed a bit but I encouraged them to attack as most times the attacking teams are the more successful ones. That is the same strategy that I’ll be deploying in the other final because if you keep on attacking, it will give you the edge as you have to bring the game to the other team,” he explained.

orane.buchanan@gleanerjm