Nigel Si­mon

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.