The podium at NORCECA Dominican Republic Continential Cup. Photo: norceca.orgThe NORCECA Dominican Republic event has finished and Canada had another great showing. This event was a Continental Cup event. That means that two teams from the same country compete together, against two teams from another country. Whoever wins the majority of those four games moves on. If after four games there is a tie, a team of the players choice will play a golden set. That's right, the golden set is back and this time it's on the sand.
On the women's side of the competition, Cuba and Canada found themselves playing in the finals with the final decision coming down to a golden set.
Women's Teams
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CUB-A | Niriam Sinal/Ion Canet |
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CUB-B | Kirenia Reyna/Imara Esteves |
Canada placed themselves in competitive position after a solid Day Two in the Dominican Republic. (photo: chaimschalk.tumblr.com)
Day two of competition in the Dominican Republic featured tight competition between men from Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. The only difference between those nations and those competing in the women's semi-finals was the qualification of Mexico, where the United States qualified for the women. It goes to show that early in the season, these nations have shown, at least amongst NORCECA competition, that they mean business.
The semi-finals had Canada competiting with Puerto Rico, and Mexico against Cuba. The format, as with the women, is a bit different from typical tournaments. Two teams from each nation, an A and B squad, move forward in the tournament together. For example, Canada A-Team plays Puerto Rico B-Team, and Canada B plays Puerto Rico A. After that, both B-Teams compete, followed by the A-Teams competing in the all-important final match (should it still be up for grabs).
Full breakdown of Tuesday's competition and the final's results after the break:
Imara Esteves of Cuba shows the kind of effort that was necessary to compete against the United States in Tuesday competition. (photo: fivb.org)The Olympic Qualifying NORCECA event went into the second day of competition on Tuesday. The format takes two teams from each representing nation, and pit them against two teams from a competing nation, with the winning country sending both teams forward. It's a somewhat different format than usual, which generally includes single teams going on regardless of how their country-mates fare.
Full breakdown of Day 2 results and finals brackets after the jump:
Today the NORCECA Guatemala event continues its main draw action. Going into Sunday, both Canadian's Men's teams will be playing in the quarter finals. Team Redmann/Saxton will be playing Guatemala 1 Hatch/Schachter will be playing Puerto Rico. The above video, again courtesy of Maverick Hatch shows the CAN-2 team defeating Trinidad & Tobago to make it to the quarter finals.
On the women's side of the tournament Canada's Bansley/Maloney will be playing Costa Rica in the quarter finals. Complete brackets and seedings below.
More after the jump.The NORCECA Guatemala event began pool play yesterday. With the lack of a live stream, we have to wait for results from NORCECA themselves. Luckily for us, Maverick Hatch took video of his second game of the day where he and partner Sam Schachter played the USA 1 team of Jason Wight and Michael Bruning. We have posted the video up above. Our other Canadian men's team of Christian Redmann and Ben Saxton won their only match of the day against Trinidad & Tobago 2-0. The results from the first day of pool play were as follows:
Men's Pool Play Results
- Pool A
- CAN-1 d. TRI 2-0 (21-11, 21-15)