Cayman Islands gets better of T&T for FIVB U19 Girls ticket

BLACKROCK, Tobago, May 26, 2024.- Cayman Islands’ Joanna Robinson and Luna Ebanks emerged as champions of the Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA)/Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) FIVB World Championship Under-19 Beach Volleyball Qualifiers to qualify to the Worlds’ main draw with unbeaten 4-0 record at the end of their five-team round-robin series.

With only the winner of the round-robin series securing a direct ticket to the FIVB World Championship main draw and the second and third placed teams to the qualification draw.

Robinson/Ebanks and Trinidad and Tobago’s L’fe Roberts and Meeka Johnson began the final day of the qualifiers both with 2-0 win-loss records and the main contenders to the automatic main draw spot for the Worlds’ event in China from August 27 to September 1.

Roberts and Johnson then improved to 3-0 when they beat Jewel Austin and Marilyn Gill of Barbados 2-0 (21-12, 21-19) while Robinson and Ebanks did likewise courtesy their defeat of Celine Hankey and Makayla Mason of Grenada 2-0 (21-5, 21-8).

And in the penultimate match of the girl’s competition, Robinson and Ebanks overcame Roberts and Johnson in the winner-take-all clash 2-1 (21-9, 11-21, 15-9) to punch their tickets to the automatic main draw while T&T ended second with a 3-1 record to earn one of the two spots to the qualification draw in China.

Joining Cayman Islands and T&T on the trip to China will be Naya Whitfield and Davy-Ann Eduards of Aruba after they outplayed Hankey and Mason (GRN) 2-0 (21-11, 21-15) to finish with the same record as Barbados, but with a better points-won to points-loss ratio of 0.9178 to 0.8224 while Grenada ended winless from their four matches.

On Saturday, Robinson and Ebanks defeated Aruba 2-0 (21-9, 21-10) and Barbados 2-0 (21-9, 21-7) while the T&T duo, veterans of the Commonwealth Youths Games at the same venue last year beat Aruba 2-0 (21-16, 21-15) and Grenada 2-0 (21-10, 21-2).