NIGEL SIMON
nigel.simon@guardian.co.tt
T&T junior women’s hockey team will be keen to end its involvement at the Junior Pan American Women’s Hockey Championship in Santiago, Chile on a high on Thursday when it meet Argentina in the sixth-placed playoff.
The match between T&T and the South Americans, the first of three women’s matches on schedule at the Prince of Wales Country Club flicks off from noon and will be followed by the main draw semifinals featuring USA and Uruguay from 2 pm, and two hours later, Canada and Chile.
On Tuesday, the Dwain Quan Chan-coached T&T girls suffered an 11-0 mauling at the hands of Chile, their double-digit defeat in Pool B round-robin play after the 15-0 drubbing at the hands of the USA to end their World Cup hopes.
After missing the first match against the Americans due to their late arrival to the tournament and serving of the 48-hour mandatory quarantine following a PCR Test due to the coronavirus pandemic, the T&T USA-based quartet of
the Olton-sisters Saarah, Kaitlyn and Samantha, and Felicia King, who are all enrolled at Long Island University (LIU) were made available to coach Dwain Quan Chan and took their places in the starting line-up as they sought to make up for the lost time.
But despite their inclusion, it was Chileans who fell to USA 2-1 in their first match on Saturday, who made a quick start with Fernanda Arrieta firing the host ahead as early as the fourth minute.
The trio of Fernanda Ramirez (ninth), Constanza Jugo (tenth) and Simone Avelli (12th) then added their names to the scoresheet for a 4-0 cushion at the end of the first 15-minutes quarter.
The second period saw a great defensive improvement from the “Calypso Stickwomen” as they only conceded once through Antonia Irazoqui in the 23rd to trail 5-0 at the halfway mark and facing an uphill task to get back in the match, to keep alive their hopes of reaching India.
The slim hopes of the Shaniah De Freitas-captained T&T squad soon faded as Arrieta (33rd ), Dominga Luders (37th), Carolina Mujica (39th), Avelli (42nd) and Ramirez (45th) all added third-period field goals to push the score to 10-0 while keeping T&T scoreless at the other end.
And in the final period, Avelli completed her hat-trick to put the icing on a commanding win for the host.
Also on Tuesday, Canada defeated an understrength Argentina team 1-0 to top the Pool A table with four points, while Uruguay took second with two drawn results.
The Argentines, one of the pre-tournament favourites for the competition were forced to field a second-string team after their initial travelling contingent including the junior men’s team involved one Covid-19 person and had to return to Buenos Aires and be replaced by an entirely new travelling party and teams.
RRESULTS
August 21
Canada 0 vs Uruguay 0
August 22
USA 2 vs Chile 1
August 23
Uruguay 0 vs Argentina 0
USA 15 ( Charlotte de Vries 10th, 37th, 39th, 45th, 56th, Hope Rose 7th, 29th, 44th, Ashely Sessa 13th, 15th, 54th, Madeleine Zimmer 4th, Sofia Southam 5th, 52nd, Abigail Tamer 51st) vs T&T 0
August 24
Argentina 0 vs Canada 1
T&T 0 vs Chile 11 (Simone Avelli 12th, 42nd, 51st, Fernanda Arrieta 4th, 33rd, Fernanda Ramirez 9th, 45th, Constanza Jugo 10th, Antonia Irazoqui 23rd, Dominga Luders 37th, Carolina Mujica 39th )
Remaining matches
Today (August 26)
Fifth – Sixth Playoff: Argentina vs T&T, noon
Semifinal: Canada vs Chile, 2 pm; USA vs Uruguay, 4 pm.
August 28
Third Playoff: Loser of semifinals, 10 am
Final: Winners of semifinals, 12 noon