The Cayman Islands barely missed a chance to advance their Olympic women’s beach volleyball dream.
Cayman placed just out of the top four after losing to Guatemala 2-0 in the semi-finals of the North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation Women’s Inter Zonal Continental Cup. The competition took place in Mal Pais, Costa Rica.
Representing Cayman were the quartet of Cristin Alexander, Jennifer Bily, Taylor Burrowes and Stefania Gandolfi. All held their own as they beat Panama 2-1 and Barbados 2-1. Aside from Guatemala, the only other nation to beat Cayman was El Salvador (4-0).
Hosts Costa Rica finished first ahead of El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. All four teams now play in the Continental Cup finals where they will battle the four qualifiers from the Central Zone – Cuba, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico – for a London 2012 Olympic Games berth. The tournament will be held in Nayarit, Mexico on 19-23 June.
Cayman, like the other Caribbean nations, got props from many within the beach volleyball fraternity including Central American Association of Volleyball Federations President Marta Centeno de Sajche.
“It is a source of pride to see how the four teams qualified to the final stage against the Central Zone are from Central America,” Centeno de Sajche said. “But we also have to congratulate the teams from the Caribbean that have shown an outstanding progress.”
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