T&T’s Joel Theodore and Stephen Enile will contest the fifth to eighth-place semifinal of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Continental Tour Finals at the Juan Dolio Beach, Dominican Republic, near the Hotel Costa Caribe Sunday.
This, after the local pair was beaten in their main draw quarterfinal 15-21, 9-21 in 35 minutes by Canadians Samuel Schachter and Daniel Dearing, champions of the 2022 Norceca Finals in their main draw quarterfinal Saturday.
When play resumed yesterday morning with the final round of pool matches, Theodore and Enile, who ended in the 11th spot of 16 in the fifth stage of the Norceca Beach Volleyball Tour at Flor Blanca Sports Complex in the City of San Salvador, El Salvador, last Sunday, battled past Panama’s Victor Araúz and Adamit Del Cid 23-21, 21-18 in 39 minutes.
The win was their second in three matches in Pool A to end in the second spot in the four-team series with a 2-1 record to advance to the quarterfinals.
In their opener, Theodore and Enile came from a set down to beat Guatemalans José Miguel Izaguirre and Luis García 18-21, 21-16, 15-11 in 52 minutes before they were defeated by Dominican Republic’s Hayerling De Jesús and Oscar Martínez 8-21, 9-21, while the latter also beat Araúz and Del Cid 21-10, 21-15 for a 2-0 record on the day.
Izaguirre and García tasted victory in their second match of Friday against Del Cid and Arauz 21-16, 21-15 but yesterday, they went under to De Jesus and Martinez 29-31, 11-21 with the former ending a 3-0 record to take top spot ahead of the main draw knockout matches.
The Canadians started their campaign with a 21-11, 21-9 victory against Jamaar Cropper and Shadron Delpesche of St Vincent and the Grenadines in pool B and they beat Nicaraguans Rubén Mora and Jefferson Cascante 23-21, 21-15 and Julian Araya and Stanley Grant of Costa Rica 19-21, 21-13, 15-13.
Mora and Cascante had beaten Araya and Grant 21-15, 21-19, who later defeated Croppe and Delpesche 21-15, 21-15 before the Nicaraguans secured the second spot in the four-team pool by beating Cropper and Delpesche 21-5, 21-11.
In the other quarterfinals Saturday, Cubans Noslen Diaz and Jorge Alayo defeated Puerto Ricans Arnaldo Torres and William Rivera 21-13, 21-15; Mora and Cascante edged De Jesus and Martinez 22-20, 21-13 and Miles Partain and Andrew Benesh of the USA stopped Mexicans Juan Virgen and Miguel Sarabia 21-18, 21-13.
The semifinals main draw will see Mora and Cascante versus Diaz and Alayo and Schachter and Dearing against Partain and Benesh while in the fifth to eight semifinals, De Jesus and Martinez play Torres and Rivera while Theodore and Enile, who placed 11th last weekend in El Salvador tackle Virgen and Sarabia with the playoffs for position one to eight to be contested later on today.
The Norceca Tour Final is part of the Olympic qualification system for beach volleyball in Norceca for Paris 2024 in France, hence the significance of the event that brings together big names from the Norceca Tour and the Volleyball World Beach Pro Tour.
