Young TT v-ballers go down

The local girls went down in three straight sets 25-14, 25-9, 25-6 but were in no manner disgraced by their opponents.

Trinidad and Tobago’s star player and captain Kelly Ann Billingy returned from her school in the United States and topscored for the host team with 10 points. But it was hardly enough as the world ranked Puerto Ricans literally powered their way to the victory.

They proved much more organised throughout the match and won spikes at will, courtesy of the brilliance of Shannon Terregrosa who topscored with 14 points.

Skipper Aury Cruz also played a captain’s role and contributed to the expected win over the hosts.

After the match Billingy said her team played very well in the first set but lost because of the errors committed.

She added that her players were not communicating well enough which allowed the Puerto Ricans to gain the upper hand.

TT coach Macsood Ali said his team could not negotiate the Puerto Rican serves after the first set and that was due primarily to the lack of knowledge about them.

"It was the first time we have played against them and as we did not know anything about them," Ali said.

He feels the local girls also suffered because of the lack of exposure, coupled with the fact that the Puerto Ricans are a very experienced team.

Juan Carlos, the Puerto Rican coach said his team took advantage in the first set despite the brilliant play of power spiker Billingy. He noted that his team made a few errors in the first set before they found the consistency they were looking for.

Cruz, the Puerto Rican captain said it was a nice first set for Trinidad and Tobago, as they didn’t know anything about the home team and they came out pretty hard.

Meanwhile the US also got off to a winning start in the tournament yesterday when they disposed of Mexico in three sets. The defending champions were hardly matched as they rumped to an easy victory 25-4, 25-22, 25-15.

In another match yesterday Puerto Rico got another splendid performance from Terregrosa and Vanessa Velez to push the number of wins in the tournament to 2 — following their triumph over regional giants Barbados 3-0.

The Barbadians got 5 points from Sharon Bovell but it was not enough to stop the rampant Puerto Ricans, who won 25-10, 25-10, 25-5.

With the loss the Barbadians will hope to avenge their defeat when they face the Trinidad and Tobago in a clash of the top regional teams today.

In another match played last night, Cuba got their second win of the tournament when they disposed easily of Canada in straight sets. Like on the opening day, the Cubans dominated throughout, thanks to the brilliance of Zyla Fernandez Barros who had 13 points on the night.

The Canadians got nine points from Gina Sehmidt in their fight-back but the Cubans triumphed 25-21, 25-18, 25-18.