T&T's women's volleyballers suffered a third 3-0 sets loss in-a-row to end the bottom of their four-team Pool B round-robin series at the eight-team 2019 NORCECA Women's Continental Cup at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, yesterday.
Following losses to world second-ranked USA and tenth ranked the Dominican Republic on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, had their best offensive output in a 14-25, 7-25, 10-25 loss to Mexico, ranked 21st in the world.
Leading the way for the Mexicans who ended third in the pool with a 1-2 record ahead of their main draw quarterfinal with the loser of last night's Pool A decider between 18th ranked Canada and Puerto Rico, ranked 13th, was Angelica Karina Flores with 11 points while Esther Castro added nine, and the duo of Fernanda Rodriguez and Valeria Gomez, eight each.
For T&T, Fletcher scored seven points, Danielle Noel three, and the trio of La Teisha Joseph, Shernice Cottoy and Afiya Alexander, two each in the one hour contest.
Overall, T&T which entered the tournament minus senior star players was outscored 14-37 on spikes, 0-4 on blocks and 3-14 on spikes
In yesterday's first match, Cuba avoided the cellar-spot in Pool A after beating Costa Rica 25-17, 25-15, 25-16 and will meet the loser of last night's penultimate match between USA and Dominican Republic, the Pool B decider, in today's quarterfinal.
Despite advancing to the quarterfinals Cuba is not taking part in the Olympic cycle and is not eligible to qualify for the Olympic qualifier.
T&T and Costa Rica as cellar-placed finishers in their pools with have the day off today before returning to action on Saturday in the fifth to eight positions semifinals against the quarterfinal losers.
On Wednesday in the last Pool A contest, Puerto Rico defeated Cuba 25-15, 25-9, 25-18 to set up the match with Canada for a spot to January’s NORCECA Olympic Qualifier after Canada downed Costa Rica 25-20, 25-8, 25-13 for their second win in Pool A as well.
As winners of Pool A, Canada or Puerto Rico will advance directly to semifinals and automatically win a ticket to the NORCECA final-four Olympic qualifier in January.
The Pool B winner between the USA and the Dominican Republic will also advance straight to the semifinals.
Tomorrow
Fifth to Eight semifinals:
Costa Rica vs Quarterfinal loser, 2 pm
T&T vs Quarterfinal loser, 4 pm
First to Fourth semifinals
USA/Dom Rep winner vs Quarterfinal winner, 6 pm
Canada/Puerto Rico winner vs Quarterfinal winner, 8.15 pm