PRESS RELEASE – The St. Lucia Volleyball Association has named three Teams in both Male and Female divisions to represent St. Lucia over the coming two weeks.

Firstly, Tevin St. Jean and Afernee Ferdinand along with Dania Hamilton and KerinNeptune, will represent St. Lucia at the Opening Stage of the 2015 NORCECA Tour to be held in Cayman Islands from April 23-27, 2015.

St. Jean and Ferdinand were the upset winners at the recently held Aqua Mele Beach Volleyball Championship April 5th and 6th, only recently agreeing to play together.

St. Jean has some experience having partnered with Cohen Caesar on one stage of the Tour before. This will be Ferdinand’s first outing.

Meanwhile, Augusin Faulkner and Cohen Caesar will lead St. Lucia’s charge at the 2016 Rio Olympic Beach Volleyball qualification, at the Continental Cup in the Male division.

This will take place in Antigua at the same time, April 24-27, 2015. They will be joined by Sheldon Descartes and Darnel Eudoxie as team St. Lucia takes on nine other ECVA countries for one of four spots in the Second Round of the Continental Cup scheduled for later this year.

Faulkner and Caesar know each other very well, as they have been playing together for some time now. They represented St. Lucia at the 2013 Under 21 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Croatia, and at the 2014 Under 23 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Poland, where they gave a good account of themselves.

Eudoxie and Descartes have also been playing together for some time and represented St. Lucia at the 2014 Under 21 World Beach Volleyball Championships in Cyprus.

These two teams also performed well in the two Local Tournaments earlier this year, with Faulkner and Caesar winning the Independence Beach Championships in Vieux Fort Independence Weekend and then placing third at the Aqua Mele Beach Tournament Easter Weekend. Eudoxie and Descartes were runners up in both these tournaments and are seen as tough and steady team.

The Continental Cup pits two teams from each country in a contest, country against country, Team A against Team B and if each country wins a match, then the score is settled with a final death, Golden Set.

St. Lucia advanced last time around to the Second Round and the aim is to go all the way to Final Round and Qualify. St. Lucia Volleyball hopes that its best players and Teams will always be available for these tournaments, yet is prepared to field quality teams in both male and female divisions because of the depth of talent now available in Beach volleyball.

The Ladies Continental Cup is scheduled for April 30- May 1st, 2015 in Antigua as well and the following Teams have been announced: Dala Noel and Kerin Neptune will partner leading St. Lucia’s campaign, with Lisa Casimie and Jamila Lansiquot pairing up in the second Team.

Both Teams have only this year started playing together and the most of the players are fairly young, with Noel, Casimie and Neptune all teenagers, while Lansiquot is only 27.

Noel and Neptune won the 2015 Independence Beach Championships, with Caismie and Lansiquot placing second. However in the Aqua Mele Beach Tournament, both teams were outdone by Junior National Player of the Year, Sky Mondesire and veteran Samantha Mann.

President of the St. Lucia Volleyball Association says that the Associations’ Beach Volleyball Program is starting to bear fruit with many of the young players who have been given exposure and opportunity to play and train, are rising to the challenge and showing great talent and commitment.

“There is now increasing competition at the top and players will find it difficult to be picked to represent St. Lucia for sure, as more players work harder and play smarter, difficult and ticklish selection and pairing decisions will have to be made, sometimes not please everyone. Not a bad position to be in, really.”