Daraine Luton, Freelance Writer
JAMAICA'S RIDDIM Girls will be using next week's Pan-American Volleyball Cup championships in the Dominican Republic as a platform from which to spy on Costa Rica, a team technical director Phillip Greenland says they have to beat in the second round of the North, Central America and the Caribbean (NORCECA) qualifiers to gain a historic berth at the World Volleyball Championships in Japan next year.
The Jamaicans are ranked 47th in the world, 16 places below the Costa Ricans who are ranked at 31. Although the full slate of qualifiers for the Dominican Republic leg of the World Championship qualifiers which take place in August has not yet been finalised, Jamaica is set to face the hosts, who are ranked 12th, fifth-ranked Cuba, Costa Rica and the second-place finisher from the Barbados qualifiers which take place between June 15 and 19.
With only three available spots for Japan on offer in the Dominican Republic, Greenland reckons that if Jamaica are to advance, his girls will have to win two games. He admits that Cuba and the hosts are out of his team's reach but is of the view that they can take care of the qualifier from the Barbados leg. This leaves them with the task of beating Costa Rica and, according to Greenland, such a feat is not insurmountable.
"We don't know anything about them but I believe that we can beat them. If we are to stand any chance of qualifying for Japan, we must get to know them so we can beat them," he said.
PRACTICE GAMES
Although Jamaica is participating in the Pan-American Championship for the first time, Greenland says his girls will not be going there with the hope of emerging champs. Instead, Greenland said, they "are going to be using the Pan-American Championships as practice games for the qualifiers ... and to take a good look at Costa Rica ... get some tapes of them so that we can study them and strategise for them".
For the Pan-American Cup, Jamaica are drawn in Group B alongside Barbados, Canada, Cuba, Mexico and the United States. Costa Rica will battle with Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Venezuela in Group A.
"I am a bit disappointed that we will not be playing them in the Pan-American Cup but I guess we will still get our chance to study them by watching them play and video-taping their games," Greenland said.
Earlier this week, the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JaVA) released the names of a squad of 12 players who will be travelling to the Pan-American games. The contingent however had four noticeable absentees in Paula-Ann Porter Jones, Shanique Green, Annie Williams Lewis and Tanya Distant all of whom represented Jamaica in the first-round qualifiers here. Greenland says their omission resulted from injuries to a few players and the need to give exposure to others.
The full squad that will be travelling to Santa Domingo between June 8 and 18 reads: Tracyann Pryce (captain), Ptomony Fletcher, Claudia Miller, Najwa Pagon, Avaniki Campbell, Romaine McNeil, Natalee Carty, Cherine Richards, Cheryl Daley, Shedeiky Hamilton, Kamille Dwyer and first-timer Shanique Sterling.
