NANCY JOSEPH and Ayana Dyette picked up from where they left off last year when the Trinidad and Tobago Volleyball Federation’s (TTVF) 2015 beach volleyball season served off Saturday at Saith Park, Chaguanas.After convincingly winning all the tournaments they contested at home last year, the country’s top-rated pair made it ten in a row, while fellow favourites Fabian Whitfield and Daneil Williams cruised to the men’s title.
There were five men’s and women’s pairs in the straight round-robin competition and both champions went through the day undefeated. In fact, Dyette and Joseph, who surrendered just three sets from their nine tournaments last year, did not drop a single set from their four matches.
Improving youngsters La Teisha Joseph and Apphia Glasgow were next best, while Elki Philip and Shenelle Gordon rounded out the top three.
Philip and Pauline Woodroffe were ranked second in the country last year, but Woodroffe is out of the country and Philip ended up playing alongside Gordon. Christian Francois and Kevin Rivers finished second to the “Toco Boys” and were followed by national indoor player Sean Morrison and Marlon Philip, a youngster who flew the red, white and black flag in the qualifying tournament in November 2013 for last year’s World Youth Olympics.
Williams and Whitfield, who secured this country’s only NORCECA (North, Central America and the Caribbean) medal when they picked up bronze in the ’13 circuit, was T&T’s male pair in the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in November in Mexico.
Joseph and Dyette also played in the CAC Games and reached the quarterfinals after competing in six of ten events in last year’s NORCECA tour. The TTVF series of tournament are designed to prepare players for regional and international events this season and the second one is scheduled for Saturday.