V-ball women seek revenge against Mexico

T&T’s senior women’s volleyballers will have revenge on their minds when they come up against host Mexico in one of two semifinals for places five to eight at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament at the Baja California High Performance Centre, Tijuana, Mexico from 10 pm tonight. The Krystle Esdelle-captained T&T women ended Pool B round-robin play with a 0-3 record after losing matches to Cuba (15-25, 7-25, 12-25); Mexico (14-25, 19-25, 23-25) and Costa Rica (19-25, 22-25, 25-15, 13-25). Mexico meanwhile was second in the pool to Cuba with a 2-1 record but fell at the quarterfinal hurdle Canada, 17-25, 18-25, 18-25.  For Canada which will meet world ninth ranked Dominican Republic in today’s main draw semifinal, Sarah Pavan led all  scorers with 21 points, all via attacks, while Marisa Field and Tammy Mahon added eight and seven respectively. Claudia Rios was the best of Mexico with 12 points. In the other fifth to eighth-place semifinal playoff, Honduras comes up against Costa Rica from 3 pm after the latter went under to Puerto Rico 12-25, 12-25, 9-25.

 

 

Sarai Alvarez and Yarimar Rosa were the two best scorers for Puerto Rico with 15 and 11 points respectively while Stephanie Enright and Shanon Torregrosa each contributed eight points. The winners of the two fifth to eighth-place semifinals will face off tomorrow for fifth spot at 5 pm. The losers will meet at 3 pm for the seventh-place playoff. The main draw semifinal will also take place today with three-time Olympic champions, Cuba, which booked a last four spot automatically after winning its pool coming up against Puerto Rico from 5 pm and Dominican Republic, the Pool A winners facing Canada from 8 pm. The main draw semifinal winners will contest the final for the lone qualification spot from the eight-team competition to the  London Olympics. USA, the top ranked Norceca women’s team has already qualified to this summer’s 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.