SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, August 28, 2026. – The Dominican Republic kept its Los Angeles 2028 Olympic hopes alive after bouncing back to defeat Cuba 3-1 (20-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-15) in the second semifinal of the NORCECA Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament at the “Prof. Ricardo Gioriver Arias” Volleyball Palace.
Las Reinas del Caribe will face Canada this Saturday in the decisive match for the tournament’s only ticket to the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The Dominican Republic is seeking its fifth Olympic appearance and third consecutive berth, following its participation at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Cuba will face Puerto Rico in the third-place match.
The Dominican Republic held the advantage in every scoring category, leading Cuba 54-46 in attacks, 13-9 in blocks and 7-0 in aces. Both teams committed 21 errors.
Captain Brayelin Martínez led the Dominican Republic with 21 points, followed by Yonkaira Peña with 16. Geraldine González and Jineiry Martínez contributed 12 points each, while Gaila González added 10.
For Cuba, Yalain Regla De La Peña scored a team-high 16 points and Diaris Pérez added 14.
Cuba applied pressure from the start and took the opening set 25-20, putting the Dominican Republic in an early deficit.
The hosts responded in the second set, finding greater consistency and taking control to win 25-19 and level the match. From there, the Dominican Republic continued to gain momentum, taking the third set 25-17 to move ahead 2-1.
The Dominican Republic carried that momentum into the fourth set and gradually pulled away from Cuba. With its blocking and offense imposing greater pressure, the home team built a commanding advantage and closed the set 25-15 to secure its place in Saturday’s decisive Olympic berth match against Canada.
Marcos Kwiek, coach of the Dominican Republic: “That’s how sports are; some days you lose, some days you win, and the winner is the one who enjoys it. Today we had a better performance. We still have some flaws that we need to correct if we want to win tomorrow, but today the girls delivered. They regained their confidence, and you could see their desire to win this game. We started a little slow because of the pressure, but then we settled in, and everything flowed.”
Luizomar De Moura, coach of Cuba: “Considering the expectations, we came away stronger from this game because we played against a valuable team like the Dominican Republic, who played us differently than last time, and we fought within our capabilities. Our reality isn’t defined by a single game; our reality is about working and thinking day after day, game after game, to improve the entire training structure. It was good because people saw that we can do it and that we are growing. My congratulations to the Dominican Republic, who have a big game tomorrow in the final.”
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