THE national U-23 volleyball team, currently preparing for the South American Championships in Colombia, recently completed a goodwill series in neighbouring Suriname in which they performed very well.This is according to national head coach Levi Nedd under whose purview the team falls
Nedd, who also holds the post of Vice- President for the Guyana Volleyball Federation, expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the team against two U-23 club teams from Suriname, making special mention of the outstanding defence and attack of certain key players.
In their first game against Condors U23, the Guyanese men practically dominated the encounter, winning the game in straight sets with a 25 – 15, 25 – 18 and 26 – 24 scoreline.
However, in a much closer encounter against a stronger Yeleco U23 team, Guyana had to dig much deeper to fight from behind to win in a four- set encounter.
Yeleco jumped off to a lead by taking the first set by a 25 – 23 margin, resulting in Nedd making some changes to his line- up and general tactics in the game to enable the local lads to win the next three sets; 25 – 17, 30 – 28 and 25 – 17.
Nedd also expressed the hope that the exposure gained by this encounter will go a far way towards the gelling of the team, something he believes will be very vital as they go up against much stronger opponents in the South American Confederation.
He also informed Chronicle Sport, that the entire team is practically the same one that won in the Inter-Guiana Games in 2015 and as such, they are already used to playing together and have tasted victory as a unit before; something he hopes will add value to the team.
The team’s preparation will continue in Berbice and Demerara separately during the week and the entire team is expected to be encamped over the upcoming weekend at the National Gymnasium, where Nedd will continue to work on game preparation and coordination of the team.
Due to an adjustment in the age requirements for eligibility to participate in the tournament, Guyana was forced to make a late adjustment to the team which resulted in a number of senior players becoming ineligible to participate in the tournament, but Nedd is still optimistic that the team can still perform creditably and possibly pull off an upset or two in the tournament.
The 14-man team reads:
Devendra Latchman, Joshua Jagmohan, Samuel Fraser, Xavier Lambert, Ryon Mangrau, Madan Budhram, Yoganand Dhoray, Kellon Leitch, Leon Stewart, Andy Rahaman, Ravi Rampartab, Samuel Persaud, Simon Orlando Seecharan and Ray Anthony Moore. Levi Nedd is the head coach and his assistant is Ian Wills.
The South American Championships in Colombia will take place from June 18 to 25.