T&T men's beach volleyball pair, Daneil Williams and Fabian Whitfield, and women's duo, Ayanna Dyette and Malika Davidson failed to advance from their round-robin groups to the main draw knockout quarterfinals when the Punta Cana, Dominican Republic Beach Volleyball Tournament, the second stop of the 2015 NORCECA Tour continued yesterday.
The Toco-born pair of Williams and Whitfield who were NORCECA Tour bronze medal on home soil three years ago went under to Canadians Daniel Dearing and Garrett May, who were third placed finishers in the first-leg stop in Cayman Islands in April, in two very close sets, 19-21, 17-21 to end with a 1-2 record in Pool C.
On Friday, Williams and Whitfield had a poor start in Pool C, suffering a surprise 10-21, 14-21 loss to US Virgin Islands' Diogo Sousa and Gustavo Cintron but rebounded to beat Jamaicans' O'Mar Williams and Ryck Webb-Mc Kenzie 21-9, 21-19. Yesterday, they were expected to contest the playoffs for positions ninth to 16.
Dyette and Davidson had a much tougher time in their women's four-team round-robin Pool D series, going under to Cubans Yanileydis Sanchez and Lidianny Echevarria 10-21, 10-21 to end with a 0-3 record.When the competition began on Friday, Dyette and Davidson were outclassed by USA-B pair Emily Stockman and Allison Mc Colloch 7-21, 9-21, but then put up more of a fight before falling to El Salvadoreans' Ivonne Soler and Laura Molina 19-21, 15-21.
Following the tournament in Dominican Republic, the T&T teams who earlier this month participated at the prestigious double-gender FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour St Petersburg Grand Slam in Pinellas County Florida will head to the USA National Beach Volleyball Developmental Centre in San Diego, California to continue their preparations for next month's Pan American Games, in Toronto, Canada.
At the World Tour event, Dyette and Davidson, competing for the first time overseas and at an international event since joining up as playing partners at the start of the year, made an early exit going under to the experienced German pair of Victoria Bieneck and Julia Grobner, 8-21, 10-21 while Whitfield and Williams were ousted by Austrians, Thomas Kunert and Christoph Dressler 18-21, 14-21 in their first round qualifier for the main draw.
The T&T pairs are also through to the second round of NORCECA Continental Cup qualifiers towards next year's Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games carded for St Lucia (men) and Jamaica (women).
The Toco-born duo of Williams and Whitfield, topped the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association Men's Olympic First Round Qualifiers towards the NORCECA Continental Cup for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016 on home soil in May along with team-mates Abraham Josiah Eccles and Tevin Joseph and had a tenth placed showing in the first NORCECA event this season, in Cayman Islands.
Dyette and Davidson also had a successful second-half of the T&TVF qualifiers for the Pan American Game, winning all five events they contested to earn the ticket to Toronto, after missing out on the national women's team places for the Cayman Islands NORCECA Tour opener, and the First Round Olympic Continental qualifying tournament which was held in Jamaica.