SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – At press time last night, three North American-based college players had not yet arrived to join their teammates at the Bellevue Dominican Bay Hotel for the CFU Under-20 Women’s World Cup qualifying tournament here.

USA-based trio of Marlo Sweatman, Adriana Johnson and Kimberley Spence were due in last night to complete the 18-member squad which will kickstart their championship tomorrow against tough neighbours Haiti at the Estadio Panamericano at 2:00 pm (1:00 pm Jamaica time).

Two other overseas-based players Shanyce Shaw (Canada) and Toriana Patterson (USA) arrived straight from their North American stations, arriving a few short hours ahead of the 13 players and six officials, who travelled out of Kingston.

Head coach Vin Blaine does not believe the combined eight-hour flight and lay-over time will adversely affect the players.

 “The Girlz are comfortable… nothing to worry about really and they are settling into the hotel as we speak and would be relaxing for the rest of the night… we will just try to rehydrate them now since they have been travelling so long.

The overseas-based players, in particular Blaine notes, are used to travelling for long hours, and are “used to arriving a day before a game”.

This morning’s session set for 10:00 (9:00 JA time), says the veteran women’s coach, will involve “a light work-out”.

“We will then go to the stadium between 2:00 and 3:00 pm where we will be concentrating on tactical work as a team… the Girlz have played together already, so it’s just to use the sessions to remind them how to play… we will looking at working with their off-the-ball movements,” Blaine told the Observer.

After facing Haiti tomorrow, the young Reggae Girlz will then cross swords b with the Cayman Islands on Sunday before closing wrapping up the campaign against the hosts next Tuesday.

The two top finishers across both zones of the Caribbean finals and the best runner-up will advance to the CONCACAF final play-offs.

Zone F is being contested by Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Guyana.

The three CFU qualifiers will join host Panama, USA, Mexico, Canada and Guatemala in the eight-team CONCACAF finals from March 1-11.

Other members of 18-member squad are Trudy Carter, Shenika Williams, Khedine Salmon, Sharika Ingram, Nicole Broderick, Khadija Shaw, Kedisha Cordoza, Sasalee Cooper, Lotoya Duhaney, Mellissa Bryan, Renee Foreman, Taylor Grant (Canada) and Carla Daniels (USA).