SVG misses Volleyball Senior Sub-regional Tournaments

THERE WILL BE no representative teams from St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) at the 2024 Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association’s (ECVA) Senior Men’s and Women’s Volleyball Tournaments in Antigua and Barbuda. The back- to- back Volleyball tournaments will be convened at the YMCA Sports Complex in St John’s, from October 18 through to October 27.

Considered one of ECVA’s powerhouses in the Men’s Division, President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Volleyball Association (SVGVA), Gary Matthias, expressed disappointment in the country not being represented, but cited “lack of money” as the reason for not entering any teams.

“We are unable to field teams in the ECVA tournaments simply because we have no money to do so… It is a disappointing, but it is the reality,” Matthias told SEARCHLIGHT.

He noted that it was difficult to access or raise the over EC $ 60, 000 needed to send both teams to the tournament.

“We tried to access some monies but this was to no avail,” Matthias explained. In pointing to some recent expenditure to support the Male Under-23 St Vincent and the Grenadines team to the Pan-American Championships in Suriname last month, Matthias revealed that his organization incurred some “unexpected” expenses.

“We had to pay some extras for added days spent in Suriname because of availability of flights from Suriname, plus, the team had to be there earlier also because of flights, and there some other incidentals,” added Matthias in providing further details of the financial predicament of the SVGVA.

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ male teams, over the past decade have been consistent entries in the Senior ECVA Indoor Tournaments, while the women have been sporadic.

With St Vincent and the Grenadines not participating, it leaves six teams to vie for honours in the Women’s segment ,and 10 in the Men’s segment. The women’s tournament precedes the men’s showdown.

Saint Lucia are the defending champions among the women, and Antigua and Barbuda, the men’s champions.