Trinidad & Tobago Edges Costa Rica in Five-Set Thriller 

OMAHA, Nebraska, September 17, 2013 – Trinidad & Tobago edged Costa Rica 25-14, 22-25, 21-25, 27-25, 15-13 Tuesday afternoon on the second day of the Visit Omaha NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship at Ralston Arena. 

Playing its first match of the 2013 NORCECA Championship, Trinidad & Tobago had balanced scoring with five players reach double-digit scoring led by Sinead Jack with 18 points. Trinidad & Tobago captain Krystle Esdelle and Darlene Ramdin each pocketed 16 points. Costa Rica, which concludes the three-team Pool A with a 0-2 record and two points, was led by Verania Willis’ 17 points. Her sister and captain Angela Willis Lindo added 15 points, followed by Paola Ramirez’s 13 points. 

Trinidad & Tobago led 8-3 in the fifth set before Costa Rica stormed back to tie the set at 8-all. However, Trinidad & Tobago held on for a 15-13 victory with the final two points capped by an Estelle kill. Trinidad & Tobago held sizeable margins in blocks (19-9) and kills (62-50), while Costa Rica dominated from the service nine with an 8-4 ace advantage and benefited from 35 Trinidad & Tobago errors. 

Trinidad & Tobago concludes Pool A on Wednesday at 4 p.m. CT versus Dominican Republic (1-0, 5 points).

 

Photos of the match can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gc3vyf0159447uv/xNe0GFISLC. 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.

Trinidad & Tobago Captain Krystle Esdelle: (Before the fifth set) “We said no more joking around. We have to get this set. We are there, let’s take it home.”

Trinidad & Tobago coach Francisco Cruz: “All victories are good. The problem is not the players; the problem is the conditions of training in Trinidad & Tobago. That team only trains six hours a week. At that level it is necessary to train 24 or more hours a week. They have come to the tournament to gain experience.”

Costa Rica Captain Angela Willis Lindo: “We have played them before and we knew tactically what we needed to do, but it was very difficult because they are a very strong team. I think that was the advantage they had. At times we were lost and we didn’t know what to do.”

Costa Rica Coach Horacio Nester: “In the first set we struggled with serve receive and our attacking wasn’t what it’s supposed to be. We allowed Trinidad to block a lot of our attacks. We had a lot of mistakes and we didn’t close out the fourth set as we should have. We had great opportunities but our mistakes cost us the victory.”