Reigning national T&T men and women beach volleyball champions, Daneil Williams and Daynte Stewart, and Rheeza Grant and Abby Blackman will continue their 2018 Gold Coast Australia Commonwealth Games preparations by competing in the Dig The Beach Volleyball Summer Tour, Pompano Beach, Florida from today until tomorrow.
Only on Sunday last, Williams and Stewart continued their dominance of the T&T Volleyball Federation National Beach Volleyball Circuit (NBVC) by capturing the Third Leg at Saith Park, Chaguanas beating rivals Abraham Eccles and Joel Theodore 17-21, 21-19, 15-12 in the eight-team tournament.
The win was the third from as many competitions so far this season for the second year and eighth straight locally since last year.
By winning on Sunday as well, Williams and Stewart carried their points tally to 24, eight ahead of Eccles and Theodore on the national points table, and earned the right to compete in the North Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) Second-Leg stop in La Paz, California in mid-April.
Starting today in Florida, Williams and Stewart will do battle with 24 other teams with the aim of lifting the title tomorrow afternoon.
Grant and Blackman will have to shake off last Saturday’s defeat to Malika Davidson and Phylecia Armstrong, 27-25, 14-21, 13-15 in the final of the Third Leg of NBVC to focus on the task at hand where they will do battle with 21 other pairs.
So far this season, both Davidson and Armstrong, who by virtue of being the current national points table leaders after three rounds will represent T&T’s in La Paz next month as well.
However, today, it will be the pair of Grant and Blackman who will be on display on an international stage as they look to fine tune their game ahead of heading to Australia for the April 4 to 15 Commonwealth Games.
Earlier this year, Qatar-based Pauline Woodroffe and Armstrong also competed in a leg of the Dig The Beach Volleyball Series at Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida in January.