Portugal-based T&T senior men's volleyballer, Marc-Anthony Honore and his SL Benfica took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five Portgual Volleyball League Honda Men's A-1 Division Championship semifinal series against AJF Bastardo on Sunday.
One week after beating the same AJF Bastardo for a record 18th Portugal Cup, Benfica travelled to Bastardo and came away with a 25-21, 25-17, 25-18 victory.
Honore and his team-mates will host the next two matches on Saturday and Sunday and if needed a fourth match will take place on April 6, with the fifth carded for April 13, if needed.
The other semifinal series also served off on the weekend, with Sporting CP beating SC Espinho, 25-23, 15-25, 27-25, 25-21.
National women's team captain, Krystle Esdelle and Pursaklar Belediyesi will go into the semifinals on a winning note after edging past Anadolu University 25-10, 25-27, 23-25, 25-15, 15-9 to stop a two-match losing skid in the Lig Bayanlar.
The win ensured Esdelle and her team-mates ended the 14-team Pool B competition, with a 19-6 mark and 59 points, eight adrift of table-toppers' Ankara PTT (23-1).
Iller Bankasi (16-8) and Samsun BSB Anakent (16-9) were third and fourth respectively with 49 and 48 points to seal the two other semifinal spots from the pool while Sariyer Istanbul (23-1), Yesilyurt (18-6), Buyukcekmece (19-5) and Maltepe Yalispor ((18-6) were the semifinalist in Pool A with 67, 56, 54 and 52 points respectively.
In the semifinal round-robin groups, Pursaklar Belediyesi faces Iller Bankasi on April 3, followed by matches against Sariyer Istanbul a day later and Maltepe Yalispor on April 5.
Jack wins the final match
Over in Japan, T&T women's middle-blocker Sinead Jack and Denso Airybees won their final league match, against Ageo Medics, 18-25, 25-19, 20-25, 27-25, 161-4 in the Japan Women's V-League on Sunday.
At the end of the eight-team round-robin playoff phase, Denso Airybees finished with a 4-3 record with ten points, ten shy off unbeaten reigning champions Hisamistsu Springs which scored their seventh win in this stage of the competition, 25-21, 25-23, 25-16 over NEC Red Rockets to earn the ticket for the finals with 20 points.
Toray Arrows battled past JT Marvelous 22-25, 18-25, 25-23, 28-26, 15-10 for second spot with a 6-1 record and 16 points and battles Body Queenseis (4-3) with 11 points in the playoff to reach the final. JY Marvelous ended fourth at 3-4 and 11 points as well.
The trio of Hitachi (2-5), Ageo Medics (1-6), and Red Rockets (1-6) were sixth, seventh and eighth position respectively with six, six and four points.