T&T's senior women's volleyballers will compete in one of two semifinals for places fifth to eighth tomorrow at the Norceca Women's Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Baja California High Performance Centre, Tijuana, Mexico from 5 pm following today's rest day. This, after Costa Rica ended all hopes of the Calypso Spikers qualifying for the London Olympic with a four set win in their final Group B match on Tuesday night. After losing to three-time Olympic champion Cuba, ranked tenth in the world and host Mexico, ranked 27th in its first two matches, the 34th world ranked T&T, four-time Caribbean champions and reigning queens needed victory over 28th ranked Costa Rica for third spot in the pool and a place in the quarterfinals. However, it was not to be as Costa Rica came away with a 25-19, 25-22, 15-25, 25-13 to claim a quarterfinal spot.
Verania Willis recorded 22 points to lead the offence of the Central American side while Angela Willis and Karen Cope chipped in with 15 and 13 respectively. Germany-based captain Krystle Esdelle and Rheeza Grant finished with 14 and 13 respectively for the short-handed T&T squad which ended the eight-team tournament minus key players Kelly-Anne Billingy, Sinead Jack and Channon Thompson. With the loss, T&T which ended round-robin play with a 0-3 record will meet one of the losers of last night's two quarterfinal matches for a fifth to eight playoff semifinal tomorrow (Friday). In the two quarterfinal matches, Puerto Rico faced Costa Rica while Canada came up against Mexico. Speaking after the loss in which her team failed to capitalise on its 18-11 advantage in the blocking stats, Esdelle said, "It was difficult for us to maintain the level of superiority after winning the third set the way we did it." Esdelle stated. T&T coach, Cuban-born Francisco "Panchee" Cruz also rue the fact his team was able to play a good third set but was not able to keep the consistency which is necessary at this level. Despite a third loss in as many matches Cruz said he was still satisfied because most of his players don't have the experience at the level,"
In Tuesday's final match Cuba beat Mexico 25-17, 25-14, 25-9 to win Pool B and earning a direct ticket to tomorrow's semifinal. Dominican Republic also earned a direct ticket to the semifinals following a 22-25, 26-24, 25-19, 25-19 victory over Puerto Rico in a clash of unbeaten Pool A teams while in the early match Canada booked its quarterfinal spot after it brushed aside Honduras 25-9, 25-10, 25-8 for third spot in the pool. On Monday night, hosts Mexico recorded a 25-14, 25-19, 25-23 victory over T&T which got a match-high 18 points from captain, Krystle Esdelle. Delana Mitchell and Rheeza Grant chipped in with ten and seven points respectively for T&T while Karla Sainz, Alejandra Isiordia and Claudia Rios each finished eight points for Mexico, and Olivia Meza added seven. Cuba which came up against the Mexicans for top spot and an automatic semifinal spot in last night's final round-robin match won its second match on Monday after it overcame a slow start to defeat Costa Rica 25-22, 25-15, 25-6.
In Pool A, Dominican Republic bested Canada 25-12, 27-25, 21-25, 25-15 to improve to 2-0, the same as Puerto Rico which trounced Honduras 25-4, 25-6, 25-4 in just 49 minutes. The eight-team competition will qualify one team to London. USA, the top ranked Norceca women's team has already qualified to the 2012 London Olympic Games after finishing in second place at the FIVB World Cup last November in Japan and is not competing in Mexico. The best-ranked team that doesn't win the tournament will have another chance to clinch an Olympic berth in a repechage tournament to be played in Japan in May.
