T&T Under-20 women's volleyballers had a much improved performance, but still went under in three straight sets against third ranked Cuba, in their second and final Pool C match at the Eighth Norceca Continental Junior Championship in Managua, Nicaragua on Wednesday. The Cubans won 25-13, 25-8, 25-14 in 57 minutes, to set up a group decider with four-time reigning champions and five-time winner USA?last night. The Americans defeated T&T in the group opener on Tuesday night. Cuba, which was superior in serves 12-1 and spikes 33-7, got a team-high 11 points from Sulian Matienzo while Yaremis Mandero got nine and the trio of Anet Alfonso, Beatriz Vilchez, and Yalennis Diaz, eight points each in the win. For T&T, Reann Young led all scorers with three points, while captain Makila Yorke, Zahra Collins and Kiana Young chipped in with two each, and Tya Jane Ramey, one.
T&T coach Macsood Ali said he has set the team small goals for each set and was satisfied with the improvement. In Wednesday's other matches, host Nicaragua had a successful debut defeating Antigua & Barbuda 25-12, 25-13, 25-12 in Pool A to set up a group decider with Costa Rica last night while in Pool B, Dominican Republic dominated Guatemala 25-7, 25-3, 25-13 and faced Mexico in their battle for top spot in the group last night. However, despite the loss, 11th ranked T&T, which qualified for the nine-team competition as winners of the Under-18 Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship earlier this year in St Croix, US Virgin Islands will compete for the seventh and eight spot on Saturday. This is because, T&T has a better points loss to points won ratio than Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association Under-18 winners' Antigua and Barbuda and Central American champions, Guatemala, after both teams also ended bottom of their respective groups without a win on Wednesday night.
