A ten-mem­ber T&T women's se­nior vol­ley­ball team left yes­ter­day to com­pete in for the bi-an­nu­al eight-team NORCE­CA Women's Con­ti­nen­tal Tour­na­ment in San Juan, Puer­to Ri­co. The six-day event will serve off at the Ruben Ro­driguez Col­i­se­um of Bayam�n, Puer­to Ri­co to­mor­row and will run un­til Sep­tem­ber 27. The win­ner will qual­i­fy for the FIVB World Grand Cham­pi­ons Cup in No­vem­ber. T&T squad, led by Kel­ly-Anne Billingy, is com­ing off a fourth place fin­ish in the Norce­ca Fi­nal Round World Cham­pi­onship Qual­i­fiers in Mex­i­co be­hind Cana­da, Cos­ta Ri­ca and the host.

Miss­ing out on the trip for T&T, due to school com­mit­ments, are the US-based trio of Dar­lene Ramdin, Jali­cia Ross and Renele Forde, who were all part of the team in Mex­i­co. Al­so out are Car­leen Williams and Rheeza Grant. The 53rd ranked T&T team will com­pete in Pool A along­side the 18th world ranked Puer­to Ri­co, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic (14th), third-place fin­ish­er in the past four edi­tions and five of the last six, and Cana­da, rat­ed 23. T&T opens play against Puer­to Ri­co on Tues­day fol­lowed by match­es against Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic (Wednes­day) and Cana­da on Thurs­day.

Pool B com­prise de­fend­ing cham­pi­on and world fifth ranked Cu­ba, win­ner of the tour­na­ment 13 times, its ri­val and five-time cham­pi­on, USA (num­ber two), two-time win­ner, Mex­i­co (num­ber 26) and Cos­ta Ri­ca (num­ber 30). The pool play runs through Tues­day to Thurs­day with the win­ner of each group ad­vanc­ing di­rect­ly to the se­mi-fi­nal round. The sec­ond and third place teams then will play crossed match­es in the quar­ter­fi­nals on Fri­day.

T&T team:

Kel­ly-Anne Billingy (cap­tain), Chan­non Thomp­son, Sinead Jack, Court­nee-Mae Clif­ford, De­lana "Di­va" Mitchell, Krys­tle Es­delle, Abi­gail Gloud, Mar­isha Her­bert, Arielle Folkes, Shervert Beck­les

Tech­ni­cal staff: Fran­cis­co "Panchee" Cruz, Nichol­son Drakes (as­sis­tant coach), Suzanne Pierre (man­ag­er).