T&T's women's volleyballers went under to the Dominican Republic 3-0 to drop to a 0-2 record in their Pool B round-robin series at the eight-team 2019 NORCECA Women's Continental Cup at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday.
Beaten by world second-ranked USA in straight sets as well on Tuesday, eight-time Caribbean champions T&T were beaten 7-25, 13-25, 9-25 by the Dominican Republic, who improved to 2-0 after defeating Mexico 3-0 (26-24, 25-11, 25-14) in their opening match on Tuesday night.
Gaila Gonzalez led the Dominican Republic in the lopsided contest with nine points as ten players scored at least a point for the winners.
The Dominican Republic was ruthless, dominating 48-15 on spikes, 22-1 on blocks and 12-0 on service aces while taking advantage of 22 T&T errors compared to 13 of their own.
Fletcher had a team-best six points for T&T and Shernice De Four five in the loss, while Samara Peters-Charles and Danielle Noel added two each in the 57-minute encounter.
On Thursday, in the team's final round-robin match, T&T will face Mexico from 4 pm.
T&T, led by Kiune Fletcher, are without their experienced core of Japan-based Sinead Jack (Denso Airybees), Darlene Ramdin (Maccabi AOV/Israel), Channon Thompson (MTV Stuttgart 1843 EV/Germany), Taija Thomas (Municipal Olympique De Mougins/France) and Renele Forde (Lefke Avrupa Sports Club/Cyprus), who are unavailable due to club commitments, Afesha Olton-Humphreys and Jalicia Ross-Kydd are injured and former Turkey-based captain Krystle Esdelle and Delicia Pierre are unavailable for personal reasons.
Also on Tuesday night, Puerto Rico swept Costa Rica 25-8, 25-14, 25-13 in their pool A opening match.
At the end of round-robin pool play today, the top team in each pool will advance directly to the semifinals while the crossover quarterfinals will be contested between the teams ranked second and third of each pool on October 11, with the winner playing the semifinals against the winners of the pools the following day.
Today's matches
Pool A
Today (October 10): Costa Rica vs Cuba, 2 pm; Puerto Rico vs Canada, 8.15pm
Pool B
Today (October 10): Mexico vs T&T, 4 pm; USA vs Dominican Republic, 6 pm
Quarterfinals
Tomorrow (October 11): Pool B runner-up vs Pool A third place, 6 pm; Pool A runner-up vs Pool A third place, 8.15 pm;
Semifinals
October 12: Fifth to Eight semifinals, 2 pm & 4pm; First to Fourth semifinals, 6pm & 8.15 pm
October, 13: Final playoffs