Trinidad and Tobago's senior men's volleyball team will go into its final Pool B round-robin match versus Peru at the 14th Men’s Pan American Cup at the Multifunctional Auditorium in Colima, Mexico, from 2 pm today needing a win to stay in medal contention.
This after the Akim Bushe-skippered T&T men suffered defeats in their opening two matches of the 12-team competition, losing to host Mexico on Sunday's first day and yesterday versus Puerto Rico.
Against Puerto Rico, T&T won the opening set 25-23, before losing the next three sets 14-25, 18-25 and 15-25.
For the Gideon Dickson-coached T&T squad, Ryan Stewart was the top scorer with 14 points while Brandon Legall added nine, Marlon Phillip seven and Bushe and Joel Theodore five and four respectively.
The Puerto Ricans were led by a quartet in double-figure scoring led by Pelegrin Vargas with 16 points, Kevin Lopez 15 and the duo of Jonathan Rodriguez and Javier Perez Rodriguez with 12 each.
Overall, it was dominant display by Puerto Rico as they outscored T&T in attacks 54-35, 10-6 in blocks and 8-2 in aces.
However, to its credit, the T&T line-up, a late inclusion in the tournament for Brazil, committed fewer errors than the winners, 26-29.
Speaking after the loss, Stewart said, “We had high intensity in the beginning, we just went down, fluctuating a lot. I think we had a pretty good game. We’ll rest and come back tomorrow with all our guns ready to the match against Peru.
He added, "It was a great start, our intensity and reception went down. When that takes place we tend to be reactive as supposed to playing aggressively. Going forward we must learn from that mistake, jumping in with high intensity, my team was truly tested.”
On Sunday night, Mexico opened with a 25-19, 25-20, 25-22 defeat of T&T despite Stewart scoring a match-high 15 points and Legall getting 12.
Opposite Daniel Vargas was Mexico’s top scorer with 11 points from nine kills and two aces while wing spiker Jorge Barajas and middle blocker Jonathan Martinez collected eight points apiece
Mexico got off to a good start in pool B, leading 41-33 in spikes, 5-3 in blocks and 6-3 in aces, while both teams finished with a similar amount of errors, Mexico with 22 and T&T 23.
Bushe, reflecting on the opening defeat, said: “We came out touchy, we achieved some of our personal goals and we would have hoped for a better blocking game. We had some errors and didn’t capitalise on blocks. It was a very interesting game and unfortunately, there was some miscommunication at the end.”
But Dickson also focussed on the positives from the Mexico match, adding: “We showed that we deserve to be here. It was a good game, a good ice-breaker for us. I think Mexico’s experience got the better of us. The game could have gone either way, especially from the second set. I am very proud of my guys and I think there’s a lot more than we can give.”
At the end of the round-robin phase, the two best first-placed teams will advance automatically to the semifinals, while the third best first-placed team will be certain of a quarterfinal spot, along with the three second-placed teams, to contest for top three positions. The two lowest ranked fourth-placed teams will compete for 11th, while the best fourth-placed team and the three third-placed pool finishers will compete for positions for seventh to tenth.
The tournament serves as the first stage competition for the qualification to the XXIV Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games 2022 and to the XIX Pan American Games 2023.
Sunday's results:
Pool A:
Canada bt Suriname 25-14, 25-19, 25-16
Cuba bt Argentina 32-30, 25-20, 22-25, 17-25, 15-13
Pool B:
Puerto Rico bt Peru 23-25, 24-26, 30-28, 25-19, 16-14
Mexico bt T&T 25-19, 25-20, 25-22
Pool C:
USA bt Guatemala 25-10, 25-17, 25-17
Chile bt Dom Republic 25-18, 20-25, 25-20, 25-21
Today's matches
Pool A
Suriname vs Cuba, 10 am
Canada vs Argentina, 7 pm
Pool B
Peru vs T&T, 2pm
Mexico vs Puerto Rico, 9 pm
Pool C
Guatemala vs Chile, 12 noon
Dom Republic vs USA, 5 pm