Puerto Rico and Canada with good start in Grand Cayman

GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands,  April 25, 2014 -Two-time defending champions, Roberto Rodriguez and Erik Haddock renewed their love affair with the sands of Seven Miles Beach when they won both their Pool C matches on the opening day of the 15-team men's NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit 2014 opener, the sixth straight year the tour has started here.

Rodriguez and Haddock first served off their bid for a hat-trick of titles on the sun-soaked venue by beating Arubans, Eargenel De Cuba and Alexander Mitchell 21-17, 21-15 and followed it up with a 21-11, 21-9 demolition of Cayman Islands-A duo, Olney Thompson and Phillippe Deslandes to end the day with a 2-0 record ahead of matches against the also unbeaten Canada-B team of Andrew Hinchey and Ryan Vanderbug, and winless Trinidad and Tobago Under-23 FIVB World Championship-bound, Tevin Joseph and Tarandath Deonath.

Hinchey and Vanderbug also won their two matches over Joseph and Deonath 21-15, 21-7; and Thompson and Deslandes 21-15, 21-14.

However, at the top of the Pool C table at the end of the opening day was De Cuba and Mitchell after they won their other two matches played, 21-13, 21-15 over Thompson/Deslandes, and 21-11, 21-8 against Joseph/Deonath.

In Pool A, USA-B's Todd Rogers, the gold medal winner of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing along with Phil Dalhausser, combined with Theo Brunner for a 3-0 mark and certain of a quarterfinal spot with one round-robin match left to play.

Rogers and Brunner began by outclassing Duncan Hamann/Ethan Manderson (Cayman Islands-C) 21-10, 21-14 before powering past Cameron Wheelan/Michael Plantinga (Canada-A) 21-14, 22-20 and St Lucians, Julian Bissette/Joseph Clercent 21-9, 21-11 in the final match of the day and will meet Guatemala's Erick Garrido and Andy Blanco on Saturday.

Canada-A and Guatemala are joint second in the pool with 1-1 records while St Lucia, ended the day 1-2.

USA-A duo, Will Montgomery and Stafford Slick, the latter a winner withCasey Jennings in Toluca, Mexico last year, were the fourth and final team to end the first day with a 100 per cent winning record and within sight of a last-eight spot from Pool B.

Montgomery and Slick scolded Costa Ricans, Julio Alvarez/Rooper Espinoza 21-15, 21-14 and then returned to beat Cayman Islands-B pairing, Shervin Rankin/Richard Campbell 21-13, 21-10.

The trio of Costa Rica, Cayman Islands-B, and El Salvadoreans, Carlos Escobar/David Vargas all have 1-1 records entering Saturday's final set of round-robin matches.

At the end of Saturday's round-robin matches in all three groups, the top teams advance to the quarterfinals while the best two third ranked teams from the three pools will also qualify.

Day One Men Results:

Pool A: CAN-A d LCA 21-12, 18-21, 15-9; GUA d CAY-C 21-13, 21-8; LCA d GUA 21-17, 21-12;  USA-B d CAY-C 21-10, 21-14; USA-B d CAN-A 21-14, 22-20; USA-B d LCA 21-9, 21-11.

Pool B: CAY-B d SKN 19-21, 21-16, 15-9; USA-A d CRC 21-15, 21-14; ESA d SKN 21-18, 20-22, 15-8; USA-A d CAY-B 21-13, 21-10; CRC d ESA 22-20, 21-17.

Pool C: PUR d ARU 21-17, 21-15; CAN-B d TT0 21-15, 21-7; ARU d CAY-A 21-13, 21-15; ARU d  TTO 21-11, 21-8; PUR d CAY-A 21-11, 21-9; CAN-B d CAY-A 21-15, 21-14.