This country's senior women's team will resume their bid for a place at the FIVB World Championship scheduled for Italy later this year when they travel to Havana, Cuba to compete against the host country, Curacoa and Haiti in their Group Q Norceca Third Round women's qualifiers from May 12-18.
Last May, T&T women's volleyball team defeated Barbados 25�18, 20�25, 25�17, 25�20 in the final of their second round Group I qualifier to the 2014 FIVB World Championship at the University of the West Indies Sports and Physical Educational Centre, St Augustine to reach the third round.
It was the second win in the tournament for T&T over the Barbados after it won its round-robin opener 25-13, 25-6, 26-24 while the Krystle Esdelle-led locals also swept past Honduras (25-15, 25-11, 25-14) and Anguilla (25-14, 25-14, 25-8) in their round-robin matches.
It also marked the second time, T&T, the reigning five-time Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) champions and seventh NORCECA-ranked team hosted a Women's World Championship qualifying tournament having done so in 2009 at the same venue.
Back then T&T played and won its second round qualifying Group C series involving Netherlands Antilles, US Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Suriname and Aruba to qualify for the third round on the "Road to Tokyo."
In the third round, which was hosted and won by Cuba, the "Calypso Spikers" ended second, ahead of Nicaragua and Guatemala, to reach the four-team playoffs among second-placed teams from which two qualified for the World Championship.
In the end, Canada and Costa Rica were the two teams to qualify ahead of Mexico and cellar-placed T&T.
Curacoa secured its passage to round three as Group J winner on home soil over Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association champion St Lucia (25-10, 25-15, 25-11) in the final while the Haitians advanced as Group N runner-up to Panama after an 18-25, 20-25, 16-25 loss in their final played in Grenada and Cuba qualified as one of the top-ranked nations.
Esdelle, who plays professionally with CSM Bucuresti of Romania, is one of four senior women's players based in Europe who are expected to be in the final 12-member T&T squad coached by Francisco "Panchee" Cruz.
The others are Channon Thompson (Evreux) and Darlene Ramdin (Terville Florange) both in France and Sinead Jack, of Russian club, Uralochka NTMK.
The other third round qualifying groups are Group P (Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guadeloupe) from May 13-19 in Santo Domingo; Group O (USA, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras) from May 13-19 in USA; Group S (Canada, Mexico, US Virgin Islands and Jamaica) from May 14-20 in Canada and Group R (Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, St Lucia, Barbados) from May 20-26 in Puerto Rico.
At the end of the five round-robin groups, the top team will qualify to the World Championships while the second placed teams in each group advances to the final qualification round in T&T/Cuba from June 2-9.