The Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation’s National League is off to a Great Start

The Cayman Islands Volleyball Federation’s kicked off their National League on Saturday, October 5th at John Gray Gymnasium. Since then players, families, and friends flock to the gym throughout the week to cheer their preferred teams onto victory. League organizer and Vice President of the Federation, Troy Alleyne, is thrilled with the turnout for this league. “In previous years we offered three divisions: men’s, women’s, and coed, but this year we opted to replace the coed division with an intermediate division. Eliminating the coed division this year makes way for smaller coed events, following the success of the first one-day indoor tournament held back in August.” said Alleyne. The newer players to the sport welcomed this change as it meant that they could still compete and develop their skills while playing against teams of a similar caliber. “The introduction of a B division endorses CIVF’s commitment to its grassroots programs” explained Kennedy McGowan, CIVF’s President.

Thanks to the Youth National Development Program which started earlier this year, we had a number of youth players join various club teams where they would gain valuable experience playing alongside seasoned veterans. Youth national player, Sadie Finch joined the Spike Girls and has nothing but good things to say about the experience thus far. “When I started playing with the Spike Girls I was still fairly new to the sport, but all the players were encouraging and helped me improve. It gave me the confidence to try new things on the court, which really improved my game and skills.”

With 6 women’s teams competing in the A division, 3 in the B division, and 7 men’s teams in the A division it has been nonstop action since the debut of the league. The competition amongst the women has been neck and neck as all teams are within two points difference of each other. For instance, Dominion Lady Strikers currently sit in first place with 9 points, followed by FBC Angels with 8 points, and Spike Girls with 7 points. The competition in the women’s B division is equally close, with Guardians Turtle Chapter and Expert Services Ltd tied for first. Meanwhile for the men, Cayman Mechanical Company and Burger King Knights have taken the lead, both with 11 points. The Pirates are not far behind, lagging by only 2 points, so it’ll be interesting to see how things pan out in remainder of the round robin. The games to come within the next two weeks will determine which teams advance onto the semifinals which are scheduled for November 19th. To stay up to date with CIVF news and events, and to join our mailing list, please visit our Facebook or Instagram pages or email info@civf.ky.