T&T teams of Pauline Woodroffe and Elki Phillip (women) and Colin Bernard and Fabien Whitfield (men) remained winless after the first two days of competition at the sixth leg of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Circuit, at the seaside city of Mazatlan, in the Pacific coast of Mexico, on Saturday.
Following a 0-3 start to their five-team round-robin pool on Friday, Woodroffe and Phillip went under to Costa Ricans, Katherine Quesada and Eugenia Ramirez, 15-21, 13-21 to end bottom of the group with a 0-4 record.
This was followed by a 13-21, 3-21 against Mexico-B, Haydee Lopez and Pamela Aguirre in their playoff quarterfinal for ninth to 16th spot.
On Friday, the T&T women competing in a five-team Pool A round-robin series of 12 participating were beaten by Traci Weamer and Allison Fleming (USA-2) 11-21, 8-21; Mexico-3 pairing Vanessa Virgen and Stephanie Burnside by a 4-21, 16-21 margin and Canada-1 duo, Melissa Humana and Taylor Pischke, 12-21, 7-21.
In the main draw quarterfinals, Weamer and Flemming beat Canada-2, Kacie MacTavish and Caleigh Whitaker, 14-21, 23-21, 15-9;
Heather Hughes and Lane Carico of USA-1 stopped Puerto Rico's Dariam Acevedo and Vanessa Velez 21-11, 21-11; Martha Vuelta and Bibi Canales (Mexico-1) overcame Costa Rica-2, Karen Lope and Natalia Alfaro 18-21, 21-11, 15-8 and Humana and Pischke, beat Stephanie Burnside and Vanessa Virgen of Mexico-3, 21-15, 21-11.
The tournament is the first this year for Woodroffe and only the second on the 2013 circuit for a local women's team after Phillip and Apphia Glasgow were 12th in their first tournament of the season, in Guatemala, while LaTeisha Joseph and Kinesha Marshall were winless. No T&T women's team participated in the first two events in Cayman Islands and Dominican Republic, as well as the fourth leg in Mexico and Cuba.
Bernard and Whitfield returned to action on Saturday morning with a 0-2 record after losses to Mexico-3's Ulises Ontiveros and Salvador Frias, 14-21, 14-21; and Mexico-2 pairing Juan Revuelta and Ricardo Galindo, 16-21, 18-2, however the T&T pair defaulted against USA-1 duo Wil Montgomery and James Drost, 0-21, 0-21 before going under to Costa Ricans Esteban Escobar and Jonathan Guevara, 15-21, 11-21 in their ninth to 16th quarterfinal.
Battling high temperatures, the teams of Victor Rivera and Erik Haddock (Puerto Rico-B) and Roberto Rodriguez and Hector Soto (Puerto Rico-A) reached the final-four stage.
The duo Rivera-Haddock breezed to a comfortable 21-12, 21-19 victory over Juan Revuelta and Ricardo Galindo of Mexico-B, but Rodriguez-Soto prevailed in a three-set marathon match with Josh Binstock and Sam Schachter of Canada-B, 21-18, 31-33, 15-12.
Rivera-Haddock are now set to play local heroes Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen of Mexico-A while Rodriguez-Soto will meet Grant O'Gorman and Sam Pedlow of Canada-A. Backed by their home fans, Ontiveros-Virgen outdueled Kevin McColloch and Derek Olson of United States-B 21-12, 22-24, 15-13 while O'Gorman-Pedlow registered a 21-13, 21-13 win over Ulises Ontiveros and Salvador Fr�as of Mexico-C.
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