A 12-mem­ber na­tion­al ju­nior (Un­der-20) women's vol­ley­ball team will leave to­day at 5 pm via Pana­ma for Nicaragua to com­pete at the Norce­ca Con­ti­nen­tal Ju­nior (Un­der-20) Women's Cham­pi­onship. The lo­cal squad to be cap­tained by Mak­i­la Yorke will overnight in Pana­ma City on its ar­rival there tonight, be­fore mov­ing on­to Man­agua, Nicaragua for the tour­na­ment which runs from Tues­day un­til Au­gust 27. In ad­di­tion to Yorke, libero and se­nior team mem­ber Rechez Lind­say as well as Kerdisha Dou­glas are the on­ly new faces in the team to be coached by Mac­sood Ali com­pared to the team which par­tic­i­pat­ed at the Norce­ca Women's U-18 Con­ti­nen­tal Cham­pi­onship in Ti­jua­na, Mex­i­co on Sat­ur­day last, where T&T placed sixth. In Nicaragua, the nine-team tour­na­ment will be played at the Gim­na­sio Polide­porsti­vo Es­pana and will fea­ture the top five teams in the Norce­ca rank­ings, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, USA, Cu­ba, Mex­i­co and Cos­ta Ri­ca along with T&T, An­tigua &?Bar­bu­da and Guatemala.

T&T qual­i­fied for the tour­na­ment hav­ing won the Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Un­der-20 ti­tle in St Croix, US Vir­gin Is­lands, ear­li­er this year, while An­tigua & Bar­bu­da won the East­ern Caribbean Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Cham­pi­onship, and Guatemala, the Cen­tral Amer­i­can tour­na­ment. The 17th ranked T&T faces a tough bat­tle to get out of its three-team group af­ter it was drawn in Group C with the sec­ond and third ranked teams, USA?and Cu­ba. Cos­ta Ri­ca, seed­ed fifth in Norce­ca is in Group A with eighth ranked An­tigua & Bar­bu­da and host Nicaragua while top seed­ed Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic is in Group B with fourth ranked Mex­i­co and tenth seed­ed Guatemala. At the con­clu­sion of the Norce­ca Ju­nior Women's Con­ti­nen­tal Cham­pi­onship the top three teams will qual­i­fy to next year's FIVB Ju­nior Women's World Cham­pi­onships to be held in Czech Re­pub­lic.

T&T team: Rechez Lind­say, Kerdisha Dou­glas, Mak­i­la Yorke, Maya Roberts, Re­ann Young, Tya Jane Ramey, Aliya Ross Dick, Aaliyah Alex­is, Zahra Collins, Latisha Morain, Kay­lon Cruick­shank, Kiana Young.

Tech­ni­cal staff: Mac­sood Ali (coach), Saleem Ali (as­sis­tant coach), Kam­la El­cock (man­ag­er), Mona Lind­say (chap­er­one)

Ref­er­ee: Bet­ty-Ann Au­gus­tine.

Tour­na­ment group­ings and sched­ule:

Group A: Cos­ta Ri­ca, An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, Nicaragua

Au­gust 21: Cos­ta Ri­ca vs An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, 3 pm

Au­gust 22: Nicaragua vs An­tigua & Bar­bu­da, 7 pm

Au­gust 23: Nicaragua vs Cos­ta Ri­ca, 7 pm

Group B: Mex­i­co, Guatemala, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic

Au­gust 21: Mex­i­co vs Guatemala, 7 pm

Au­gust 22: Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic vs Guatemala, 3 pm

Au­gust 23: Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic vs Mex­i­co, 3 pm

Group C: USA, T&T, Cu­ba

Au­gust 21: USA vs T&T, 5 pm

Au­gust 22: Cu­ba vs T&T, 5 pm

Au­gust 23: USA vs Cu­ba, 5 pm

Au­gust 24: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion ninth & quar­ter­fi­nals

Au­gust 25: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion sev­enth/eight & semi­fi­nals

Au­gust 26: Clas­si­fi­ca­tion fifth/sixth & fi­nals and third place play­offs.