The T&T boys team of Dar­i­on Sparks and Josie Ce­de­no end­ed in the tenth spot, while the girls duo of Sarah Mo­hammed and Jen­nisa Mor­ri­son were 14th when the NORCE­CA Un­der-18 Beach Vol­ley­ball Cham­pi­onships end­ed at Juan Do­lio Beach in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic Wednesday (Ju­ly 9).

In the boys play­off for the ninth spot, Sparks and Ce­de­no bat­tled all the way be­fore falling in three en­ter­tain­ing sets, 11-21, 22-20, and 12-15, to Puer­to Ri­cans Mau­ro Morales and Roc­co Figueroa in a 50-minute con­test.

On Tues­day, the T&T boys got their first win of the com­pe­ti­tion by beat­ing US Vir­gin Is­lands’ Ky­mani Greenidge and Ajah­nai Mer­chant 21-6, 21-19 in their ninth to 12th play­offs, while Morales and Figueroa beat Grena­da’s Julien Si­mon and Kaiden Smith 21-9, 21-12 in the oth­er.

When the tour­na­ment be­gan on Mon­day, Sparks and Ce­de­no were de­feat­ed by the Cay­man Is­lands’ Dy­lan Lynee and William Du­ty 22-24, 13-21 in 42 min­utes in their open­ing match in Pool C on Mon­day and re­turned yes­ter­day morn­ing to fall in a must-win con­test with Guatemalans Fredy Lu­na and Robin Olivia 5-21, 13-21 to miss out on a main draw spot. Lu­na and Oli­va al­so won, 21-17, 12-21, 15-7, over Lynee and Du­ty on Mon­day to top the pool.

In the girls’ com­pe­ti­tion, Mo­hammed and Mor­ri­son were out­played by An­guil­lans Cyn­nee Liburd and Cay­la Jno-Bap­tiste 10-21, 11-21 in 27 min­utes for 13th spot af­ter both teams were hand­ed 13th to 16th semi­fi­nal byes on Tues­day.

Mo­hammed and Mor­ri­son, who al­so com­pet­ed in the Un­der-21 com­pe­ti­tion which end­ed on Sun­day, fin­ished in the cel­lar spot in their Un­der-18 Pool B round-robin se­ries af­ter los­ing their fi­nal match ver­sus Cos­ta Ri­cans Mar­i­ana Jimenez and Lu­ciana So­to, 4-21, 7-21, yes­ter­day morn­ing.

When the com­pe­ti­tion served off on Mon­day, the T&T girls were beat­en by El Sal­vado­ri­ans Fa­ti­ma Ren­don and De­vo­ra Med­i­na 3-21, 8-21, as well as Puer­to Ri­cans Itza­mar Mar­tinez and Yami­la Gon­za­lez 7-21, 9-21.

At the end of the tour­na­ment, the top four teams per gen­der in each event will earn di­rect qual­i­fi­ca­tion to the main draw of the FIVB U-18 World Cham­pi­onship, which is sched­uled to take place in Do­ha, Qatar, from Oc­to­ber 7 to 11.