The quar­tet of cap­tain Krys­tle Es­delle, Renele Forde, Sinead Jack and Chan­non Thomp­son are among a group of se­nior na­tion­al play­ers who will all miss the up­com­ing 18th Pan Amer­i­can Vol­ley­ball Cup in Pe­ru from Ju­ly 4-15.

The four play­ers, along with Dar­lene Ramdin, Kel­ly-Ann Billingy, Ki­une Fletch­er, Afe­sha Olton-Humphreys, Jali­cia Ky­dd, and Tai­ja Thomas, were all part of last year's team which com­pet­ed in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

How­ev­er, Es­delle and Thomp­son are cur­rent­ly com­pet­ing for Mo­to­lite in the Philip­pines Pre­mier Vol­ley­ball com­pe­ti­tion while Forde and Jack have opt­ed out for per­son­al rea­sons.

USA-based Dali­cia Pierre is al­so un­avail­able while Ross-Ky­dd is out in­jured, leav­ing Ramdin and Olton-Humphreys as the two key se­nior mem­bers of the team, which will fea­ture main­ly Un­der-23 play­ers and those on the fringes of the se­nior team.

A wel­come sight for the team, how­ev­er, is the re­turn of Cuban-born coach Fran­cis­co "Panchee" Cruz for the tour­na­ment dur­ing his time-off from the FIVB De­vel­op­men­tal Coach­ing du­ties in the Caribbean.

Cruz was at the helm of the "Ca­lyp­so Spik­ers" for near­ly a decade and led the team to sev­en straight CA­ZO­VA ti­tles, as well as de­but par­tic­i­pa­tion at the FIVB World Grand Prix and FIVB Women's Cham­pi­onship be­fore step­ping down at the end of last year.

In Pe­ru, the "Ca­lyp­so Spik­ers," who won the se­nior Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) Women’s Cham­pi­onship ti­tle for an un­prece­dent­ed eighth tri­umph and sev­enth in suc­ces­sion last year in Suri­name, will come up against cham­pi­ons USA, Colom­bia, Puer­to Ri­co, Chile and Mex­i­co in Pool B. Host Pe­ru will en­ter­tain the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Ar­genti­na, Cana­da, Cu­ba and Guatemala in Pool A.

In 2017, T&T had its best-ever fin­ish in the com­pe­ti­tion in Pe­ru, ninth, af­ter beat­ing two South Amer­i­can teams.

First­ly, in the round-robin phase, T&T beat Chile 26-24, 25-22, 25-15 and then bat­tled past Venezuela 25-22, 25-17, 19-25, 25-18 in their ninth-place play­off.

To­day, Cruz and his squad, which in­cludes Jack on­ly for the train­ing ses­sions, will con­tin­ue their prepa­ra­tions for Pe­ru at the Cen­tral Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Saith Park, be­fore hold­ing a fi­nal ses­sion Thurs­day at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Tacarigua, both from 5 pm to 7 pm.