SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, August 26, 2026 – Decelise Champion delivered a 34-point performance as Puerto Rico came back to defeat Mexico 3-2 (25-16, 23-25, 23-25, 25-17, 15-11) and finish fifth at the 2026 NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship.
The victory earned Puerto Rico a berth at the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Cup and the final spot in the NORCECA Olympic Qualification Tournament, to be held August 28-29 at the “Prof. Ricardo Gioriver Arias” Volleyball Palace.
Champion’s 34 points made her the tournament’s top scorer so far. Paola Santiago added 11 points and Valeria Vazquez contributed 9 to the Puerto Rican offense.
For Mexico, Sofía Maldonado led with 21 points, followed by Grecia Castro with 17 and Uxue Guereca with 16.
Puerto Rico controlled the opening set 25-16, committing only three errors compared to Mexico’s eight. Mexico responded by taking two closely contested sets by identical 25-23 scores to move ahead 2-1 in the match.
Mexico remained in position to close out the match in the fourth set, which was tied at 15-15. Puerto Rico then took control, with Champion contributing key points as the Puerto Ricans won 10 of the final 12 points to take the set 25-17 and force a decisive fifth set.
Puerto Rico carried that momentum into the tiebreaker and built a 7-3 advantage, but Mexico fought back and eventually tied the score at 10-10. Puerto Rico responded at the decisive moment, winning five of the next six points. Champion delivered attacks during the closing stretch before a Mexican error sealed the 15-11 victory.
In the fifth set, Mexico held a 7-6 advantage in attacks, but Puerto Rico led 4-3 in blocks and committed only one error compared to Mexico’s five.
Juan Carlos Núñez, coach of Puerto Rico: “Our matches against Mexico are always like this. We had already talked about it before the match: it didn’t matter whether we won 3-0, 3-1 or 3-2, we had to stay calm. We lost two sets that we had opportunities to win, but my girls, when they have to dig deep, fight with everything they have on the court. I’m very proud of them.”
Nicola Negro, coach of Mexico: “At least we played and were ahead 2-1. We had control until the middle of the fourth set. After that, our attack was very poor, especially at the end of the fourth set and in the tiebreaker. My congratulations to Puerto Rico.”
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