T&T had a tough start to the Norceca U-18 Women's Continental Championship going under in straight sets to Puerto Rico in their Group B opener on Monday night, at the Baja California High Performance Centre, less than five hours after arriving in Tijuana, Mexico. The Reann Young led a 12-member T&T Under-18 women's volleyball team who left here on Saturday for Tijuana, Mexico to compete at the seven-team event, however, their flight was delayed between Mexico City and Tijuana on three occassions and the team only managed to arrive in Mexico on Monday, the same day as its opening match. However, Puerto Rico showed little mercy on the Macsood Ali-coached T&T youngsters and coasted to a 25-7, 25-7, 25-8 victory in 49 minutes. For Puerto Rico, Julymar Otero and Nanishka Pérez, scored 11 and ten points respectively while they also had six aces apiece. Despite the loss, T&T captain, Reann Young felt glad about this first International experience. "It was good to be in this first game in a great facility and with great fans," said Young who finished with a team-high two points.
The young "Calypso Spikers" who qualified to compete at the prestigious event after capturing the Under-16 Women's Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Championship crown in St Croix, US Virgin Islands on April 4 beating Haiti 25-15, 25-22, 25-23 in the final led by Malika Davidson-captained were expected to come up against Dominican Republic in their other match last night ahead of tomorrow's quarterfinals from 6pm. In Group A, USA?secured a straight sets win over Costa Rica 25-15, 25-11, 25-10 led by Carli Snyder and Courtney Schwan with 12 and 11 points respectively for USA. Schwan also finished with seven aces while Costa Rican captain Angie Montero Alfaro registered five and in the other match, host México opened with a victory over Guatemala, 25-13, 25-9, 25-12. Fernanda Bañuelos and Diana Valdez scored 10 points apiece, while captain Ivonne Martínez recorded four aces for Mexico. For Guatemala, the top scorer was captain Estefanie Bethancourth, with six points. With only three teams in its group, T&T is assured of at least a place in the quarterfinal round which takes place at the end of the round-robin series in both groups. The tournament concludes on Saturday with the top three teams qualifying for next year's FIVB Girl's Youth World Championship in Thailand.
