Canada Takes Down Trinidad & Tobago

OMAHA, Nebraska, September 19, 2013 – Canada advanced to the 2013 Visit Omaha NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship semifinals by defeating Trinidad & Tobago 27-25, 25-11, 25-22 Thursday evening in the quarterfinal round at Ralston Arena.

Canada will challenge defending champion and host United States, which won Pool B and advanced directly to the semifinals, on Friday at 8 p.m. CT. Trinidad & Tobago will play Saturday at 4 p.m. CT against the loser of Thursday’s second quarterfinal between Puerto Rico and Mexico.

Canada had 10 players score at least one point led by Tabitha Love’s 11 points. Trinidad & Tobago was paced by Darlene Ramdin’s 13 points and Channon Thompson’s 10 points.

Although Trinidad & Tobago held a 33-24 advantage in kills, they committed 39 errors in the three-set match. Canada held a 9-6 margin in blocks and both teams hat five aces.

Canada Coach Arnd Ludwig: “I think we had little ups and downs like we do in every game that we play. I’m pretty proud that we won and it’s the first time in a long time that Canada has qualified for the semifinals of a big tournament. (Playing the United States) is going to be a learning experience. We need to play every game that we can get. For us it’s going to be fun tomorrow. We have no pressure whatsoever.”

Canada Captain Brittney Page: “Trinidad & Tobago is a very athletic team and somewhat unpredictable and it definitely kept us on our toes, but it also got us into trouble. It was really matter of us keeping on our toes and executing. I think that’s what got us into trouble is that we wanted to win so bad that we were focusing on the last point and not on the process.”

Trinidad & Tobago Coach Francisco Cruz: “That’s the best match that we have ever played against Canada. We feel that we should have won the first set. We made a lot of easy errors. We gave Canada a lot of easy points that they hardly had to work for.”

Trinidad & Tobago Captain Krystle Esdelle: “Even I thought we were going to win the first set. It gave us a lot of confidence for tomorrow.”

Photos of the match can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcibef5zgl2zkn6/iwivRQTMXK. All matches in the Visit Omaha NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship can be viewed online at http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Volleyball/Events/Live-Webcast.