T&T beach vballers begin U-19 Worlds campaign

This country’s junior women and men beach volleyball teams of Meeka Johnson and L’fe Roberts and Jerome Morrison and Darion Sparks will serve off their respective main draw group campaigns when the 18th FIVB World Championship Under-19 Beach Volleyball Tournament continues in Shangluo, China, Wednesday.

Johnson and Roberts, now attached to Florida Memorial University in the USA, will begin their four-team Group A 32-team main draw series against China’s Yijing Lei and Siyu Qi of China before facing reigning Under-18 European champions Lia Berger and Lilli Hohenauer, both 17, of Austria, ninth in 2022, in their second match on the day, followed by Thursday’s final pool encounter versus Morocco’s Aida Lamzaouak and Fakhr Imane.

In the men’s 32-team main draw, Morrison and Sparks began their campaign against the Viljamaa brothers from Finland. Veeti and Konsta played their only match today before facing Denmark’s Villads Flugge Napier and Villads Lundby Andersen, and Hong Kong’s Ho Yiu Wong and Hoi Fung Li in their final two matches tomorrow.

The tournament began yesterday, with 23 men’s and 24 women’s teams in the qualifier, at the end of which the four best in each gender progressed to the main draw.

And at the end of the main draw group stage tomorrow, the second and third-placed teams in each of the eight pools will advance to the 24-team elimination rounds, with the eight pool winners qualifying directly for the round of 16.

Both rounds will be held on Friday, with the quarterfinals and semifinals following on Saturday and the medal matches concluding the event on Sunday.

Speaking on the eve of the opening matches for his team, Sean Morrison, coach of the T&T team, said his teams have a chance to qualify out of their groups once they play to their potential.

“We need to be as professional as we can be and execute our game plans to the best of our ability,” said Morrison.

“It’s also going to be a great experience for the girls to play against the host country on the main court, and for that encounter, we need to go out there and showcase our talent and represent the Caribbean well.

“Personally, as coach of the teams, I’m looking forward to great performances from our teams and seeing them create history,” said Morrison, who is accompanied by Hannah Wellington as manager and Norlisha Alleyne as head of delegation.

Last May, the T&T girls qualified for the tournament when they ended as runners-up in a five-team round-robin series of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA)/Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Qualifiers at the Courland Beach Sports Facility in Black Rock, Tobago.

This comes after Cayman Islands’ Joanna Robinson and Luna Ebanks ended with an unbeaten 4-0 record at the end of their round-robin series, with T&T finishing in the second spot at 3-1.

In the tournament decider, Robinson and Ebanks overcame Roberts and Johnson in the winner-take-all clash 2-1 (21-9, 11-21, 15-9). Earlier on in the two-day event, Roberts and Johnson beat Jewel Austin and Marilyn Gill of Barbados 2-0 (21-12, 21-19); Celine Hankey and Makayla Mason of Grenada 2-0 (21-10, 21-2); and Naya Whitfield and Davy-Ann Eduards of Aruba 2-0 (21-16, 21-15).

Brazil is the most successful nation in the age group on the women’s side, having celebrated four titles, followed by Germany with three, while among the men, Poland has the most victories, with four, followed by Brazil and Germany with three each.

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