The Trinidad and Tobago pair of Jahreef Miguel and Jerome Morrison lost at the quaterfinal stage of the 2025 North, Central American and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA) Under-21 Beach Volleyball World Championship Qualifier at Juan Dolio beach, Dominican Republic on July 5.
After navigating pool C, the TT team met pool D victors USA in the last eight. The first set was a tight one, but the US pair of Malachi Brewington and Titus Lance won it 24-22, before cruising to a 21-7 win in the second set to claim the straight sets victory.
Earlier on July 5, Miguel and Morrison beat Guatemala’s Jose Guevara and Fredy Luna 21-18, 21-11 to get their second win of the preliminary phase. On July 4, Miguel and Morrison lost their first pool C game to Costa Rica (21-23, 7-21), before defeating the Cayman Islands pair of Dylan Lynee and Stephen Watson (21-19, 21-16) in a tight clash.
The top five teams in the tourney will gain automatic qualification to the main draw of the Federation International de Volleyball (FIVB) Under-21 World Championships in Puebla, Mexico from October 15-19. The teams finishing sixth to ninth will play a qualifier to advance to the main draw of the World Championships.
On July 6, Miguel and Morrison will look to grab that automatic spot when they first take on El Salvador in a battle between two losing quarterfinalists. The winner of that matchup will then contest the fifth-place playoff later on July 6 with the aim of landing direct World Championship qualification.
On the women’s side of the under-21 draw, the TT pair of Jenessa Morrison and Sarah Mohammed had a rough time in pool C as they lost all three matches. In their first game on July 4, the TT women lost 4-21, 4-21 to Guatemala, before losing 11-21, 17-21 as they put up a better fight against Barbados. In their final pool C match on July 5, Jenessa and Mohammed lost out 4-21, 2-21 to Nicaragua.
The under-21 tourney will be immediately followed by the under-18 World Championship Qualifiers which will be played from July 7-9. Jenessa and Mohammed will also compete in the under-18 qualifiers.
The FIVB Under-18 World Championships will be held in Qatar from October 7-11.
Trinidad and Tobago Newsday
