Record seven T&T teams for BVB Tournament

MISSION Beach, Trinidad, November 14, 2012 - Fabien Whitfield and Daneil Williams head a record seven entries from hosts Trinidad & Tobago registered to compete in the tenth leg of the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit at the scenic Mission Beach, Toco from Friday until Sunday.

The Toco-born pair of Whitfield and Williams, coming a season-best fourth placed at the ninth leg in St Lucia last month, qualified as the top local seeds for this weekend’s event, the first in T&T since 2007, by topping a four-man qualifying tournament on Sunday at the tournament venue.

In the round-robin series, Whitfield and Williams defeated fellow tour players, Simon Blake and Colin Bernard 21-14, 21-19, Kevin Rivers and Wendell Thomas (23-21, 21-14) and Jason Dennis and Josiah Eccles, (21-12, 22-20) for a 3-0 record.

Blake and Bernard won their other two matches while Rivers and Thomas had a 18-21, 21-19, 16-14 win over Dennis and Eccles.

However, while the top two local teams at the end of the series will represent T&T, a decision was taken for Rivers to pair with Dennis to form T&T’s third team for the Norceca event.

In the women’s team competition, there was a shake-up in the women’s team to represent T&T, with Ayanna Dyette and Elki Phillip, who were also fourth in St Lucia, playing with different partners.

At the end of the qualifying tournament, Dyette and Nancy Joseph, who made a return to the Norceca tour in St Lucia with Pauline Woodroffe last month and placed fifth, topped the five-team tourney.

Dyette and Joseph stopped second placed finishers, Phillip and Andrea Davis, 21-14, 21-16 in a tense encounter while they also registered wins over Shenel Gordon and Latriesha Joseph 21-13, 22-20, Apphia Glasgow and Sherva Charles, 21-8, 21-5 and Olivia Outram and Woodroffe, 21-10, 21-11.

Phillip and Davis, who makes a return to the tour after last playing with Joseph in 2007, ended with 3-1 record for second while Gordon and Joseph (L) will make their tour debut after beating Glasgow and Charles, 21-16, 22-20 and winning by walkover against Outram and Woodroffe.

Glasgow and Charles grabbed the fourth and final tour spot open to the T&T women after outlasting Outram and Woodroffe, 21-18, 21-19.