Nigel Si­mon

T&T's se­nior women's vol­ley­ball squad got its quest for a spot at the Lon­don Olympic off to a los­ing start, go­ing un­der to three-time Olympic cham­pi­on Cu­ba in straight sets in its Group B open­er of the Norce­ca Women's Olympic Qual­i­fi­ca­tion Tour­na­ment, yes­ter­day. Cu­ba, coached by for­mer T&T se­nior men's coach Juan Car­los Gala shook off a slow start be­fore brush­ing aside the 34th world ranked "Ca­lyp­so Spik­ers", 25-15, 25-7, 25-12 in 58 min­utes. Yoana Pala­cios led the way for Cu­ba with 15 points while Yanelis San­tos added 11. De­lana Mitchell top­scored with five points and cap­tain Krys­tle Es­delle got four for the T&T squad, who en­tered the tour­na­ment with­out three key play­ers in Kel­ly-Anne Bil­ingy and the Poland-based duo of Sinead Jack and Chan­non Thomp­son due to in­jury and club com­mit­ments re­spec­tive­ly.

In yes­ter­day's open­ing match, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic steam­rolled debu­tantes Hon­duras 25-5, 25-5, 25-7 in Pool A. Gi­na Mam­bru had a team-high 14 points to lead Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, who rest­ed a few reg­u­lar starters while Cindy Ron­don added 12 and Prisil­la Rivera, ten. Two oth­er match­es were sched­uled last night with 22nd ranked three-time Olympic qual­i­fiers Cana­da against 19th ranked Puer­to Ri­co while host Mex­i­co faced Cos­ta Ri­ca.

To­day, T&T will hope to bounce back when fac­ing host Mex­i­co be­fore clos­ing out round-robin group play ver­sus Cos­ta Ri­ca to­mor­row. In to­day's oth­er match­es Cu­ba and Mex­i­co tan­gle from 10pm in Pool B while Puer­to Ri­co meets Hon­duras from 3pm, and Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic faces Cana­da from 8pm.