Dominican Republic stuns Mexico in NORCECA Championship quarterfinal

MONCTON, Canada, September 14, 2026: Dominican Republic upset Mexico today and will advance to the semifinal of the NORCECA Men’s Championship at the Avenir Centre in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada.

After a decisive first-set win, Mexico fell 1-3 (25-16, 19-25, 19-25,19-25) to the Dominican squad in the quarterfinal.

Dominican’s opposite Adrián Figueroa Lantigua led all scoring with 25 points (19 kills, 4 blocks and 2 aces) followed by teammate Héctor Alexis Cruz with 20 points (18 attacks and 2 aces).

Outside hitter Franky Hernández Milantony was Mexico’s lead scorer with 17.

Overall in the match, Mexico had the slight lead in attack points 54-52, with Dominican Republic edging out its opponent in blocks 8-7 and aces 5-3. Errors made a difference with Mexico giving up 26 points compared with 18 for Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic will play USA in the semi tomorrow at 7 pm local time.

Eight teams are in Moncton, Canada, for the 2026 NORCECA Men’s Continental Championship, where three berths to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Cup in Poland will be at stake. The tournament will also determine the teams that advance to NORCECA’s final qualification stage (Sept. 18 and 19) that will earn one team a berth to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. USA is already qualified as host of the LA 28 Games.

Dominican Republic Head Coach Jose Manon: “We’re very excited, extremely excited, because we secured qualification for the next event (NORCECA Olympic Qualifier). We almost didn’t make it here, but God willing, we’ll keep moving forward and continue earning world ranking points.”

Middle blocker Luther Rosario #15, Dominican Republic: “We feel great. We’ve worked hard for many years, and our team this year did not perform well in other tournaments, but now we are really happy to win this match; it’s very important for us for ranking, for qualifying for the World Cup and to dream about the Olympics. We are here to fight with every team…. We fought hard today and we will try our best against USA and we know we have work to do.”