Nigel Si­mon

Ger­many-based Krys­tle Es­delle will lead a strong 12-mem­ber T&T's se­nior women's vol­ley­ball team which de­part­ed yes­ter­day for the 11th Women's Pan Amer­i­can Cup, the top an­nu­al event in the Norce­ca Con­fed­er­a­tion from to­mor­row un­til Fri­day Ju­ly 20, in Ciu­dad Juarez, Mex­i­co. In ad­di­tion to Es­delle, the T&T line-up al­so fea­tures Poland-based teenaged duo, Sinead Jack and Chan­non Thomp­son, both of AZS Bi­a­ly­stock, as well as France-based Kel­ly-Ann Billingy, US-Col­le­giate play­er Renele Forde (Flori­da In­ter­na­tion­al Uni­ver­si­ty), and St John's Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ate Dar­lene Ramdin. Among the lo­cal­ly based play­ers, the libero Court­nee-Mae Clif­ford, Rheeza Grant, Abi­gail Gloud, De­lana Mitchell, An­drea Kin­sale and the for­mer US-col­lege star Jali­cia Ross are all in the squad mak­ing it T&T's best pos­si­ble gath­er­ing of play­ers in close to two years.

For the 12-team tour­na­ment (eight from Norce­ca and four from South Amer­i­ca), T&T, a four-time Caribbean cham­pi­on, will do bat­tle in Pool B with three-time win­ner, ti­tle-hold­er and world sec­ond-ranked Brazil, Pe­ru (#17), Ar­genti­na (#18), host Mex­i­co (#27) and Cos­ta Ri­ca (#28) in Pool B. World top-ranked USA which won in 2003 is in Pool A with two-time cham­pi­on Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, four-time win­ner Cu­ba (#10), Puer­to Ri­co (#19), Cana­da (#22), and 26th-ranked Colom­bia. The 34th world ranked na­tion­al women's squad coached by Cuban-born Fran­cis­co Cruz, opens its cam­paign against host Mex­i­co in the fi­nal match at the Cole­gio de Bachilleres Gym­na­si­um, Ti­jua­na. T&T will then play Ar­genti­na on Fri­day, Brazil (Ju­ly 14), Cos­ta Ri­ca (Ju­ly 15) and Pe­ru, a day lat­er, be­fore the play­offs serves off. T&T has nev­er qual­i­fied for the main draw quar­ter­fi­nals of the tour­na­ment and will be tar­get­ing vic­to­ries against Cos­ta Ri­ca, Mex­i­co and Pe­ru, in or­der to se­cure a top three fin­ish in its group which will ce­ment a main draw knock­out spot.

Team

Krys­tle Es­delle (cap­tain), Kel­ly-Ann Billingy, Sinead Jack, Renele Forde, Court­nee-Mae Clif­ford, Abi­gail Gloud, Dar­lene Ramdin, Rheeza Grant, De­lana Mitchell, An­drea Kin­sale, Jali­cia Ross, Chan­non Thomp­son.

Tech­ni­cal staff: Fran­cis­co Cruz (coach), Nichol­son Drakes (as­sis­tant coach), Su­san Pierre (man­ag­er)