Bermuda under-14 girls’ hopes of progressing to the next round of the WJT North/Central America and Caribbean qualifiers were dashed in the Dominican Republic yesterday.

A 2-1 defeat at the hands of Jamaica means Bermuda will be looking to salvage some pride in a play-off to determine fourth through eighth rather than securing passage from this week’s pre-qualifying tournament.

The defeat was Bermuda’s first after topping group C with an unblemished 2-0 record to storm into the main draw.

Jamaica drew first blood after Jenna Harrison defeated Bermuda’s No 2 Imani Phillips 7-6, 6-4 in the opening singles contest.

However, it was game on after Bermuda’s No 1 player Kaylah Ming beat rival Emma Dibbs 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 in a contest lasting exactly three hours to even the series and set the stage for a winner-takes-all doubles contest.

Ming and Phillips gave it their all with the series on the line but ultimately came up short, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to Dibbs and Harrison.

“The girls played their hearts out and left everything on the court but unfortunately didn’t leave the court with the win,” Jacklyn Lambert, the Bermuda coach, said.

“They went into the doubles ready to put in the work but was unable to obtain a victory.

“Everyone is still proud of the spirit and pride they carried themselves with.”

The Bermuda team will face Honduras today.

Meanwhile, returning to winning ways were the under-14 boys who recorded a comfortable 3-0 victory against Honduras in their ninth through sixteenth play-off series.

Bermuda’s No 2 player Tego Bean got the ball rolling after breezing past rival Valentin Vasquez 6-1, 6-2 in exactly an hour.

Trey Mallory, Bermuda’s No 1, then clinched the series with an equally comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Adrian Salgado.

Bean and Ben Lines then completed the clean sweep after dispatching Salgado and Daniel Schmidt 6-2, 6-0 in less than an hour.

“They showed great maturity as a team after such an emotional day yesterday [Wednesday] missing the main draw by a set,” Gavin Manders, the boys’ coach, said. “They stuck to the game plan and executed it to a tee.”

The boys, who missed out on reaching the main draw after finishing third in group B, face Curacao today.