This country's Under-23 men's volleyball team will be hoping to end their tournament on a high when they come up against El Salvador fifth spot in the Second Under-23 Pan American Men's Volleyball Cup at the Palacio De Los Deportes, Ciudad Deportiva, La Habana, Cuba from 3pm today.
It will be the second meeting in two days for both teams who faced off in their final round-robin match of the six-team tournament yesterday after both fell to 0-4 following defeats on Wednesday night.
In the opening match, T&T dropped to 0-4 after going under to Mexico 16-25, 17-25, 17-25 in only 44 minutes.
Opposite hitter, Alexis Garay (11) was the only player who tallied double-digits by the Central Americans.
Enrique Ugalde added six and the duo of Humberto Ceballos and Jose Martinez five apiece for the winners who controlled the contest on spikes 29-22 and blocks 8-4 while making less errors as well, 23 to T&T's 37.
Outside hitter and team captain Brandon Legall led T&T with ten points while Marlon Phillip add eight in the loss.
Speaking after yet another loss, T&T coach Gideon Dickson said the match was quite hard: "Truly, the last objectives of our team, considering the results attained to date, have become really complicated; in principle, because we had to play against a rival of great efficiency like Mexico. Nevertheless, we will try to keep on improving our effectiveness.
Legall, stated: "The boys gave a better show than yesterday, the pass and the spike had more quality.
The point is that Mexico has a better defence and block, and thus it was difficult for us to do our game."
In the two other matches, Guatemala overcame El Salvador 15-25, 25-16, 25-20, 25-17 while host Cuba beat Dominican Republic 25-19, 25-17, 25-23 to join Mexico with 4-0 records and qualification for the FIVB World Championship, 2015 of this age group category.
On Tuesday, Legall and his team-mates created history by winning a first ever set in the tournament in an 18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 16-25 loss to Guatemala.
For Guatemala, Axel Menendez had 12 points and Carlos Lopez and Gerardo Gonzalez added ten points each while Newton Grant had a match-high 17 points for T&T, Legall got 13, and Nicholas Prescott and Tyrell Edwards, six and five each respectively.
In the night's other matches Mexico outlasted Dominican Republic 27-25, 29-31, 19-25, 25-22, 15-13 and Cuba beat El Salvador 25-15, 25-17, 25-17.
Today, Mexico and Cuba will meet in the final from 7pm while Dominican Republic and Guatemala two hours earlier for third.
Remaining fixtures:
Today (October 10:)
Final playoffs:
Fifth: T&T vs El Salvador, 3pm
Third: Dominican Republic vs Guatemala, 5pm
Final: Cuba vs s Second, 7pm.