ZINACANTEPEC, Mexico, September 22, 2026.- The Dominican Republic earned its first victory at the 2026 NORCECA Women’s Final Six with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-16) win over Canada on Tuesday at the Unidad Deportiva Juan Fernández Albarrán in Zinacantepec, Estado de México.
The Dominicans improved to 1-1 in the round robin, while Canada dropped to 0-2.
The Dominican Republic held a commanding 44-29 advantage in attacks, along with narrow leads of 3-2 in blocks and 3-2 in aces. The teams committed a similar number of errors, with 23 by the Dominicans and 25 by Canada.
Flormarie Heredia led all scorers with 17 points, while Florangel Terrero added 10 for the Dominican Republic. Laila Johnston paced Canada with 11 points.
The Dominicans established an early lead in the opening set, jumping ahead 5-0 and maintaining control on their way to a 25-18 win.
Canada offered its strongest resistance in the second set. The Canadians narrowed the gap to 22-21 and then 23-22, but the Dominican Republic responded with attacks by Katielle Alonzo and Alondra Tapia to take the set 25-22.
The third set remained close at 17-15 before the Dominicans scored six consecutive points to pull away 23-15. They went on to close out the match 25-16.
On Wednesday, the Dominican Republic will face undefeated USA at 4:00 p.m., while Canada will meet Puerto Rico at 6:00 p.m. The top four teams after the round robin will advance to the semifinals.
Dominican Flormarie Heredia, Top Scorer: “Today we played more as a team and tried to take control of the match. Our serving was more effective than yesterday, and we also passed better. We need to keep putting pressure on with our serve to play a good match against the United States and make better adjustments in our blocking.”
Misha Hameed, Canada’s Libero: “I think we start strong, but we struggle to keep our foot on the gas, especially in the middle and later stages of sets. Honestly, that has been our Achilles’ heel in the last two matches. Hopefully, we can build on this for tomorrow’s match and keep the pressure on throughout the entire game, because we know we can compete with these teams.”