Nigel Si­mon

nigel.si­mon@guardian.co.tt

The top T&T men and women beach vol­ley­ball teams of Daneil Williams and Daynte Stew­art, and Rheeza Grant and Ab­by Black­man, both ad­vanced to the main draw knock­out when the fifth stop of the NORCE­CA Beach Vol­ley­ball Cir­cuit be­gan yes­ter­day.

This af­ter both T&T pair­ings, com­pet­ing in three-team pools won their open­ing match­es in Bo­ca Chi­ca, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Com­pet­ing in Pool B, Williams and Stew­art swept whipped Ja­maicans Tris­ton Hitch­man and No­ley Fer­gu­son 21-11, 21-10 and will meet Cana­da's Sam Ped­low and Sam Schac­ter to­day from 8 am in their group de­cider and a di­rect spot to the quar­ter­fi­nals.

Ped­low and Schac­ter de­feat­ed the Ja­maicans 21-13, 21-11 in their open­er.

The T&T-B pair of Joel Theodore and Mar­lon Phillip were still in con­tention to qual­i­fy from Pool F af­ter they were beat­en by Cubans, En­rique Reyes and Karell Pina, 19-21, 9-21 and but re­bound­ed to de­feat El Sal­vadore­ans, Car­los Es­co­bar and David Var­gas, 19-21, 21-16, 15-11 for a 1-1 record.

To­day in their fi­nal round-robin match, Theodore and Phillip face Arubans, Fran­sua An­gela and Dar­vick An­tho­ny from 10.30 am, with a win ce­ment­ing a spot in the 'Top 12 pay­offs'.

Grant and Black­man en­joyed a straight sets win, 21-11, 21-14 over US Vir­gin Is­lands' Cristi­na Almei­da-Anz and Melanie Va­len­ciana in Pool A be­fore los­ing in their pool de­cider with Cana­da's Heather Bans­ley and Brandie Wilk­er­son, 8-21, 6-21.

Bans­ley and Wilk­er­son pow­ered past Almei­da-Anz and Va­len­ciana 21-7, 21-11 in their first match.

The oth­er T&T women's pair of La Teisha Joseph and Suraya Chase went in­to their fi­nal match ver­sus Mex­i­cans Martha Re­vuelta and Zaira Orel­lana last night with no chance of ad­vanc­ing to the Top 12 to­day.

This af­ter Joseph and Chase went un­der to Guatemalans, Na­tal­ie Giron and Es­te­fanie Bethancourt 10-21, 17-21; and Cu­ra­cao's Angje­ny To­lenti­no and Chris­tine An­tho­ny, 12-21, 13-21.

At stake for all par­tic­i­pat­ing teams rep­re­sent­ing more than 15 point­ed to­wards qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the 2019 Pan Amer­i­can Games in Li­ma, Pe­ru.