T&T's Under-18 women volleyballers squandered a 2-0 sets lead and four match-points in the third set before falling to Guadeloupe 2-3 (26-24, 25-20, 25-27, 22-25, 13-15) in their opening match of Pool B at the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) Youth Championships in St Catherine, Jamaica, on Tuesday.
With defending champions Barbados beating Guadeloupe 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-4), the onus was on the Sean Morrison-coached T&T to get a win against the French-speaking island to set up a pool decider Wednesday at GC Foster College Physical Education and Sports Centre.
After taking the first two closely fought sets 26-24, 25-20, T&T, bronze medal winners in 2015, had a chance to seal victory in the third when ahead 24-21. But it was not to be, as Guadeloupe won the next six of seven points to stay alive before again clawing their way back from 21-19 down in the fourth to win, 25-22 and set up a fifth and deciding set where they went ahead early on before winning 15-13.
On Wednesday, Morrison’s young charges will need to play above their potential to deny Barbados a victory and keep alive their own chances of advancing straight to the semifinal as group winners. That match starts at 4 pm.
Anything less than that will see the T&T girls, champions in 2007, 2012 and 2013, playing a cross-over quarterfinal Thursday against either Suriname, US Virgin Islands or hosts Jamaica from Pool A.
Pool A is also nicely poised after Suriname defeated USVI 3-1 (25-21, 22-25, 25-20, 25-17) after the latter swept Jamaica 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-20) on Monday. Jamaica tackles Suriname in Wednesday’s final girls' round-robin match at 6.30 pm, ahead of the quarterfinals Thursday.
<Suriname keep U-19s boys winless>
The Peer Nasseir-coached T&T U-19 boys dropped to a 0-2 record in their five-team round-robin series after going down to Suriname 3-0 (19-25, 15-25, 15-25) Tuesday.
This after T&T was overwhelmed by two-time winners Barbados in their opening match on Monday, 14-25, 14-25, 21-25.
On Monday night, Suriname made a bold statement when they silenced defending boys’ champion and hosts Jamaica 25-16, 25-20, 25-20 and now sits atop the table with a perfect 2-0 record.
On Tuesday night, Jamaica faced USVI in the second boys’ match of the day.
T&T plays USVI on Wednesday from 1.30 pm following the encounter between Barbados and Suriname at 11 am.
At the end of the five-team round-robin series on Friday, the top two teams will contest the final while the third and fourth-placed teams in the first round will play for the third spot on Saturday.
The tournament serves as the first round of the U-18 Girls’ and U-19 Boys’ FIVB World Championships qualification, with the winners of the tournaments advancing to the second round in August 2020 in Puerto Rico and the USA respectively.