T&T's tennis girls will play for third and fourth in the Central American and Caribbean Pre Qualifying Tournament for the World Junior Tennis competition in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday.
They will face Guatemala in a mouth-watering contest, while host Dominica Republic will tangle with Puerto Rico for the gold medal and bragging rights.
The local tennis princesses produced a series of battling performances against the host nation, but they had to settle for a 3-0 loss, which still enabled them one of their best finishes in the tournament in many years, whether they finish at either third or fourth.
After a victory over giants El Salvador that earned them their place in the semifinals yesterday, Jordane Dookie was the first to surrender her opening rubber 1-6, 1-6 to Maria Gell, and Cameron Wong later perished in her singles to the COTECC number #1 seed Rosario Elmudesi in straight sets 3-6, 4-6, a result that handed the home team a comfortable 2-0 advantage.
Dominica Republic's pair of Gell and Alexa Lerebours then completed the formality with a 3-0 win over the T&T team of Jaeda-Lee Daniel-Joseph and Dookie 2-6, 2-6 for the right to compete for the gold medal and title in front their home crowd.
Afterwards, T&T coach Kyle Hannays was anything but disappointed, saying he was extremely happy with a tremendous fighting effort shown by his girls.
"The idea was not winning, but to give 100 per cent effort and fight, and if that led to a win, then we will take that. The girls were confident and under no real pressure, which made them able to play their game," Hannays explained.
He told Guardian Media Sports the girls are not far from getting match points or attaining that level where they can close off on crucial points, which is what makes the difference in players at that level of competition.
"There is need to execute under pressure, execute when they are 40-down etc," Hannays said.
He made it clear that if the girls continue playing at that level of competition, it will augur well for them in their holistic development.