Nigel Si­mon

T&T's Nan­cy Joseph and Ayana Dyette missed a spot in the women's quar­ter­fi­nals at the Gatorade-spon­sored sec­ond-leg of the 2014 NORCE­CA Beach Vol­ley­ball Cir­cuit, af­ter los­ing their fi­nal Pool C round-robin match against Mex­i­cans Di­ana Valdez and Stephanie Burn­side at Cam­po Marte, Guatemala City, on Sat­ur­day.

Joseph and Dyette en­tered Sat­ur­day's clash in a win­ner-take-all sit­u­a­tion. How­ev­er the Cen­tral Amer­i­cans pre­vailed 21-17, 21-14 to grab sec­ond spot be­hind group win­ners, USA-B duo, Heather Hugh­es and Christal En­gle.

On Fri­day, Joseph and Dyette were beat­en by Hugh­es and En­gle, bronze medal win­ners in Cay­man Is­lands, but re­bound­ed to beat Bar­ba­di­ans, Shari Matthew and Ani­cia Wood 21-16, 21-19.

In the quar­ter­fi­nal round, Hugh­es and En­gle oust­ed Guatemala-B pair­ing, the Orel­lana sis­ters, Maria J and Maria A, 21-9, 21-9; Cos­ta Ri­cans, Karen Cope and Na­talia Al­faro brushed aside Valdez and Burn­side 21-14, 21-12; USA-A's Tealle Hunkus, and Kim­ber­ly Di­cel­lo over­came Cana­da-A'a Vic­to­ria Al­tomare and Julie Gor­don 17-21, 21-19, 15-9 and Cubans, Lian­na Flo­res and Leila Mar­tinez stopped Guatemala-A duo Blan­ca Re­ci­nos and An­na Ramirez 21-9, 21-14.

In the semi­fi­nals yes­ter­day, Cu­ba faced USA-B and USA-A came up against Cos­ta Ri­ca.

Last week­end, when the tour served off at Sev­en Miles Beach, Grand Cay­man, Cay­man Is­lands, Joseph and Dyette won their open­ing match be­fore los­ing the next two.

They beat Hon­durans Gi­na Flo­res and Martha Eu­ce­da but then fell to USA-A's Hunkus and Kim­ber­ly Mc Giv­en, in the round-of-16, and then in the losers draw round-of-16 they were oust­ed by host duo, Cristin Alexan­der and Jes­si­ca Wolfend­en.

Hunkus and Mc­Giv­en even­tu­al­ly won the ti­tle, 21-23, 21-10, 15-9 over Cana­da-A duo, Melis­sa Hu­mana and Tay­lor Pis­cke and will be go­ing for a re­peat on the dark sands of Cam­po Marte.

In the men's com­pe­ti­tion, Tevin Joseph and Taran­dath De­onath who are prepar­ing for the FIVB World Un­der-23 Cham­pi­onships were beat­en in their Pool A open­er against Guatemala-A, Andy Blan­co and Er­ick Gar­ri­do 10-21,10-21 be­fore they for­feit­ed against last week's sil­ver medal win­ners in Cay­man, USA-A's William Mont­gomery and Stafford Slick due to a shoul­der in­jury to Joseph.

The men's tour­na­ment al­so reached the last four on Sat­ur­day af­ter­noon, with USA-A's WIlliams Mont­gomery, sec­ond in Cay­man Is­lands last week beat­ing Cana­da-B's Cameron Whee­lan, 21-16, 24-22 to set up a clash with USA-B, Derek Ol­son and Kevin Mc Col­loch who dis­patched Guatemala-B's Julio Re­ci­nos and Luis Gar­cia 21-7, 21-19.

On the oth­er side of the draw, Puer­to Ri­cans, Rober­to Ro­driguez and Er­ick Had­dock, bronze win­ners in Cay­man Is­lands scold­ed Blan­co and Gar­ri­do 21-9, 21-12 and faced Cubans, Ni­val­do Di­az and Ser­gio Gon­za­lez, af­ter the lat­ter whipped Arubans, Ear­genel De Cu­ba and Alexan­der Mitchell 21-14, 21-14.When the tour served off in Cay­man a week ago, the T&T boys had a mis­er­able out­ing and end­ed win­less (0-4) in their five-team Pool C round-robin se­ries.

Joseph and De­onath first went un­der to Cana­da-B duo, An­drew Hinchey and Ryan Van­der­bug 15-21, 7-21 and Arubans De Cu­ba and Mitchell, 11-21, 8-21 on Fri­day be­fore los­ing twice again yes­ter­day to two-time de­fend­ing Cay­man Is­lands-leg win­ners, Ro­driguez and Had­dock 6-21, 10-21, and Ol­ney Thomp­son/Phillippe Des Lan­des (Cay­man Is­lands-A), in their best out­ing of the tour, 21-16, 19-21, 12-15 for 14th out of 15 par­tic­i­pants.