Nigel Si­mon

T&T's Un­der-20 women vol­ley­ballers will be­gin the task of try­ing to reach the main draw quar­ter­fi­nals of the Eighth Norce­ca Con­ti­nen­tal Ju­nior Cham­pi­onship when they face four-time de­fend­ing cham­pi­on and five-time win­ners, USA, in one of three match­es to­day in Man­agua, Nicaragua. The lo­cal squad, led by Ma­li­ka Yorke, will go in­to ac­tion against the Amer­i­cans in the nine-team tour­na­ment from 8 pm (TT time) at the Gim­na­sio Polide­porsti­vo Es­pana in the lone Group C match to­day, while it faces an­oth­er for­mer cham­pi­on and third placed fin­ish­er in the last two edi­tions, Cu­ba, in its oth­er roundrobin match to­mor­row al­so from 8 pm. Cos­ta Ri­ca and An­tigua & Bar­bu­da will get the com­pe­ti­tion off and run­ning from 6 pm to­day in their Group A cur­tain rais­er, while Mex­i­co and Guatemala close out the first day of ac­tion with a Group B clash at 10 pm.

The Mac­sood Ali-coached T&T women's team, which qual­i­fied for the tour­na­ment as win­ner of the Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Un­der-20 Cham­pi­onship ear­li­er this year in St Croix, US Vir­gin Is­lands is a rel­a­tive­ly in­ex­pe­ri­enced one, with on­ly Yorke and libero Rechez Lind­say hav­ing pre­vi­ous ex­pe­ri­ence at this lev­el. Both Yorke and Lind­say were mem­bers of Ali's team which placed ninth in Mex­i­co two years ago, while T&T al­so end­ed eighth in 2008 and 2006, and was sev­enth in 2004. In ad­di­tion to Yorke and Lind­say, Kerdisha Dou­glas is the oth­er new face added to the team which end­ed in sixth spot at the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed Norce­ca Women's U-18 Con­ti­nen­tal Cham­pi­onship in Ti­jua­na, Mex­i­co.

The teams were se­lect­ed pri­mar­i­ly based on their Norce­ca rank­ings with Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic which has end­ed sec­ond the last four out­ings, USA, Cu­ba, Mex­i­co and Cos­ta Ri­ca be­ing the top five in that or­der along with 17th ranked T&T, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da and Guatemala. T&T qual­i­fied as CA­ZO­VA win­ners, while eighth-seed­ed An­tigua & Bar­bu­da won the East­ern Caribbean Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Cham­pi­onship, and tenth-ranked Guatemala, the Cen­tral Amer­i­can tour­na­ment. At the con­clu­sion of the Cham­pi­onships, the top three teams will qual­i­fy for next year's FIVB Ju­nior Women's World Cham­pi­onships to be held in Czech Re­pub­lic.

T&T team: Rechez Lind­say, Kerdisha Dou­glas,

Mak­i­la Yorke, Maya Roberts, Re­ann Young, Tya

Jane Ramey, Aliya Ross Dick, Aaliyah Alex­is,

Zahra Collins, Latisha Morain, Kay­lon

Cruick­shank, Kiana Young.

Tech­ni­cal staff: Mac­sood Ali (coach), Saleem

Ali (as­sis­tant coach), Kam­la El­cock (man­ag­er),

Mona Lind­say (chap­er­one)

Ref­er­ee: Bet­ty-Ann Au­gus­tine.

Tour­na­ment group­ings and sched­ule:

Group A: Cos­ta Ri­ca, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da,

Nicaragua

To­day (Au­gust 21): Cos­ta Ri­ca vs An­tigua &

Bar­bu­da, 6 pm

To­mor­row (Au­gust 22): Nicaragua vs An­tigua

& Bar­bu­da, 10 pm

Thurs­day (Au­gust 23): Nicaragua vs Cos­ta

Ri­ca, 10 pm

Group B: Mex­i­co, Guatemala, Do­mini­can

Re­pub­lic

To­day (Au­gust 21): Mex­i­co vs Guatemala, 10

pm

To­mor­row (Au­gust 22): Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic vs

Guatemala, 6 pm

Thurs­day (Au­gust 23): Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic vs

Mex­i­co, 6 pm

Group C: USA, T&T, Cu­ba

To­day (Au­gust 21): USA vs T&T, 8 pm

To­mor­row (Au­gust 22): Cu­ba vs T&T, 8 pm

Thurs­day (Au­gust 23): USA vs Cu­ba, 8 pm

Au­gust 24: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion ninth & quar­ter­fi­nals

Au­gust 25: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion sev­enth/eight &

semi­fi­nals

Au­gust 26: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion fifth/sixth & fi­nals

and third place play­offs

Tour­na­ment His­to­ry:

1998: 1. USA; 2. Mex­i­co; 3. Cana­da

2000: 1. Cu­ba; 2. USA; 3. Mex­i­co

2002: 1. Puer­to Ri­co; 2. USA; 3 Cu­ba

2004: 1. USA; 2. Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic; 3. Puer­to

Ri­co; 7. T&T

2006: 1. USA; 2. Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic; 3. Puer­to

Ri­co; 8. T&T

2008: 1. USA; 2. Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic; 3. Cu­ba; 8.

T&T

2010: 1. USA; 2. Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic; 3. Cu­ba; 9.

T&T