T&T senior women’s beach volleyballer, Ayana Dyette is pleading with corporate T&T to come on board and support the national women’s team’s effort to qualify for this year’s Women’s Beach Volleyball Tournament at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
On Sunday last at the Ocho Rios Bay, Jamaica, Dyette and playing partner Malika Davidson and the other T&T duo of La Teisha Joseph and Apphia Glasgow won the Second Round of the Women’s NORCECA Continental Cup Inter Zonal Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association (CAZOVA) and Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association (ECVA) Olympic Qualifiers with a 3-1 win over Barbados.
Dyette and Davidson (T&T-A), won both their matches, firstly beating veterans Sharon Bovell and Anthazia Mason of Barbados-B 21-10, 21-14 and then over Shari Matthews and Anicia Wood of Barbados-A 21-17, 21-12.
Glasgow and Joseph were beaten in their opening match by Matthews and Wood, however the T&T women rebounded to defeat Bovell and Mason 21-19, 21-16 to crown Trinidad & Tobago champions.
Speaking after the win, which saw T&T improved on its first round third placed finish behind Jamaica and Cayman Islands, Dyette said, “Winning was the team and her personal goal at the start of the tournament.
She added, “I wasn’t able to compete in the first round, so I am so happy to have accomplished what I did with the team and overwhelmed that our both teams were able to play well.”
With regards to her team-mate Davidson who she combined with to play unbeaten over the three days of competition, Dyette said they had a game plan and to remain calm, using their strengths to score.
“As a team, T&T wasn’t settling for less than gold and we also thank the Jamaican Volleyball Association for organising a great tournament.
Davidson added, “We worked very hard for this and I believe it will hit me later on, but I am so excited as both our teams came to do our best and our best is gold; it’s surreal”.
Asked how the group was able to stay focus in their preparations for the qualifiers during a busy Christmas and Carnival season, Dyette, a former senior national indoor women’s team player stated, “We know that a major part of our culture “Carnival” is at its high point, but it did not phased us as we all had a goal in mind and that was to get the gold medal in Jamaica.”
“We all want to make our country proud and fly the red, white and black flag high, high, high, and we can boastfully say now that it’s been done with our dedication as well as that of the coaches and trainers.”
Overall, as the most senior member of the team, I’m just proud of how everyone played and now I’m looking forward to us getting stronger for the Third Round of qualifiers which will involve the teams from Central America.”