Nigel Si­mon

Out­side-hit­ter Si­mon Blake and op­po­site Ryan Stew­art showed the fu­ture of T&T was in safe hands as they tal­lied 18 points each in a 22-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-19 de­feat of Bar­ba­dos in the men's fi­nal of the 15th Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (Ca­zo­va) Cham­pi­onship at the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Mu­cu­rapo on Sun­day night.

The win se­cured a sec­ond ti­tle in four years for the Gideon Dick­son-coached T&T af­ter it lift­ed the crown for the first time four years ago in Suri­name by beat­ing Bar­ba­dos as well be­fore go­ing un­der to Ba­hamas in the 2012 fi­nal in St Croix, US Vir­gin Is­lands.

Hav­ing beat­en T&T in four sets in their round-robin Pool B de­cider ear­li­er in the week, the Bar­ba­di­ans went in­to the con­test as slight favourites, and took the first set.

How­ev­er, Blake, the "Best Spik­er", "Best Scor­er" and even­tu­al tour­na­ment "Most Valu­able Play­er" award re­cip­i­ent and Stew­art, who had 17 and 12 kills re­spec­tive­ly ral­lied the host to a come-from-be­hind win in two hours and sev­en min­utes.

Por­tu­gal-based mid­dle-block­er Marc-An­tho­ny Hon­ore and USA-based Mikheil Hoyte chipped in with 13 and 12 points re­spec­tive­ly while cap­tain, Nolan Tash who was play­ing in his fi­nal Ca­zo­va Cham­pi­onship af­ter 20 years in the sport added six.

The lo­cals al­so outscored their ri­vals on all key as­pects of the match, 47-43 on kills, 18-4 on blocks and 4-1 on aces.

In a very close­ly fought con­test, T&T was al­so able to take full ad­van­tage of an in­jury to Bar­ba­di­an cap­tain and set­ter Alain Lon­don, who twist­ed his left an­kle near to his team's bench with the score 20-15 in the third set.

The lone dis­ap­point­ment for the home team on the night was its 37 er­rors com­mit­ted to Bar­ba­dos' 28, how­ev­er it still held firm to avenged the round-robin loss and claim the ti­tle, its first on home soil af­ter plac­ing fourth in 1993 and 2002 when its op­po­nent were crowned cham­pi­ons.

The ti­tle tri­umph had a sim­i­lar feel to 2010 as back then T&T was beat­en by Bar­ba­dos in the pre­lim­i­nary round, be­fore oust­ing Ba­hamas in the semi­fi­nals and then ex­act­ing re­venge on the Ba­jans in the ti­tle match.

Shawn Simp­son had a team-high 12 points all on kills, Jabari Goodridge 11, and Fabi­an Cox, nine for the Bar­ba­di­ans who were af­ter their first ti­tle since beat­ing T&T in the 2006 de­cider for its last of its record ten-ti­tles.

Bar­ba­dos, the record 12-time fi­nal­ists was al­so crowned cham­pi­ons from 1992-1996 as well as 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004 while they were al­so run­ners-up in 2008 to Mar­tinique be­fore end­ing third in 2012, its low­est fin­ish ever.

Com­ment­ing on the win, vet­er­an Tash said it was a very emo­tion­al vic­to­ry for many rea­sons.

"First­ly, com­ing in­to the tour­na­ment we were un­der a lot of pres­sure to do well and I don't think we were looked at as favourites."

"How­ev­er, we knew the strength of our team and want­ed to take the ti­tle on home soil for the first time be­cause with this vic­to­ry it opens up doors for our team to com­pete at the high­er Norce­ca lev­el.

"The match was al­so ded­i­cat­ed to me as this will sure­ly be my last Ca­zo­va event and what a way to go out, as cham­pi­ons. I could not have asked for any­thing bet­ter, so thanks to my team-mates and the crowd for their tremen­dous sup­port."

Bar­ba­di­an coach Niles Ludger cred­it­ed T&T for play­ing a good match and not­ed that the lev­el of sup­port by the crowd played a key role on keep­ing them on a high.

T&T coach Gideon Dick­son said his team ex­e­cut­ed its game plan ac­cord­ing­ly to get the win.

"We knew go­ing in­to the match it would not be easy, but the guys stuck to their task and got the re­quired re­sult."

Ho­n­our roll:

Best Spik­er: Kevin Spork­slede (Suri­name)

Best Spik­er: Si­mon Blake (T&T)

Best Op­po­site: Shawn Simp­son (Bar­ba­dos)

Best Re­ceiv­er: Re­nal­do Mo­ta (Cu­ra­cao)

Best Dig­ger: Ri­car­do Chong (Ja­maica)

Best Block­er: By­ron Fer­gu­son (Ba­hamas)

Best Block­er: Rachid Ise­nia (Cu­ra­cao)

Best Set­ter: Gi­an­dro Tokaay (Cu­ra­cao)

Best Libero: Ryan Ma­hadeo (T&T)

Best Serv­er: Ryck Mc Ken­zie-Webb (Ja­maica)

Best Scor­er: Si­mon Blake (T&T)

Most Valu­able Play­er: Si­mon Blake (T&T)