T&T duo Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams made an impressive start to their campaign at the fifth stop of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour with a 2-0 Pool C record on Friday's opening day at the Hickory Point Beach Sand Volleyball Complex in Tavares, Florida.Coming off a victory at the CBVA's Manhattan Beach Open on Sunday last, the Toco-born pair of Whitfield and Williams defeated Baydr Sajia and Jason Cabral of Belize 21-13, 21-11 and David Mackenzie and Jeffery Samuels of USA-C 21-17, 21-15.
Mc Kenzie and Samuels, are 2-1 after they overcame Sergio Figueroa and Arnel Cabrera of Puerto Rico 21-15, 21-19 and Barbadians' Elwyn Oxley and Ronald Rice by 2-0 (21-13, 21-16).Yesterday, the T&T men completed round-robin group play with matches against Oxley and Rice, Figueroa and Cabrera ahead of the quarterfinals, while the semifinals and finals are carded for today.
Pan American Games champions, Lombardo Ontiveros and Juan Virgen of Mexico and Devon Hatcher/Andrew Dentler of USA-B concluded day one with a 3-0 win-loss records and were certain of places in the last-eight.Ontiveros and Virgen, in Pool B, knocked out Aruba-A Luis Van Der Linden/Dwayne Angela 21-8, 21-10, and Aruba-B's Gino Hodge and Elmerindo Robles 21-6, 21-10, and then Derek Olson and Jeremy Casebeer of USA-A 21-19, 21-17.
In Pool A, Devon Hatcher and Andrew Dentler of USA-B also had a strong performance beating Costa Rica's Rooper Espinoza and Alexander Villegas 21-16, 21-16, Aaron Nusbaum and Michael Plantinga of Canada-A 21-15, 21-15, and Marc Lomeli and Brian Kwasny of US Virgin Islands 21-15, 21-12.
Also with two wins were Dearing/Garret May of Canada-B and Guatemala's Erik Flores/Wagner Chacon.Dearing and Garret May defeated Lomeli and Kwasny 21-17, 21-16 and Espinoza and Villegas of Costa Rica 21-15, 21-12 while in Pool B, Flores and Chacon prevailed over Hodge and Robles 25-15, 25-13, and Van Der Linden and Angela 21-10, 21-9.
On the other hand, the T&T women's duo of Ayana Dyette and Malika Davidson had a tough day and ended 0-2. This after Dyette and Davidson went under to Megan Nagy and Marie Lapointe of Canada-B in Pool D, 12-21, 16-21 and USA-E's Sierra Sanchez and Katherine Plessy, 9-21, 15-21.
Nagy and Lapointe also brushed aside Mexico's Zaira Orellana and Stephanie Burnside 21-18, 21-18, the latter being the T&T women final round-robin opponents, yesterday.Kimberly Dicello/Kendra Vamzwieten and Delaney Knudsen/Katie Spieler of USA, Megan Nagy and Marie Lapointe of Canada-B and Costa Rica's Karen Cope and Natalia Alfaro had strong performances as well.
In Pool A, Dicello and Vamzwieten of USA-A defeated Jace Pardon and Vanessa Freire of USA-C 21-11, 21-18 followed by their victory over Nyota Peters and Rosemarie Simon of Antigua and Barbuda 21-13, 21-8.
Knudsen and Spieler of USA-B prevailed over Canada's A team of Rachel Cockrell/Camille Saxton 20-22, 21-15, 15-13, and then Ivonne Soler and Laura Molina of El Salvador 21-10, 21-12 in Pool B while Cope and Alfaro took down Kristina Pellitieri/Julie Brown of USA-D 21-18, 21-13 and fellow country woman Katherine Quesada and Eugenia Ramirez 21-19, 21-11.