Tag: 2022 Womens Final Six

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 11, 2022 – Dominican Gaila González won the Most Valuable Player award at the NORCECA Final Six Cup held at the Ricardo Gioriber Arias Volleyball Pavilion.

The Dominican left-hander concluded the tournament with 61 points helping Las Reinas del Caribe to win the gold medal. González was also the most outstanding in services with 13 aces and named Best Opposite.

Brayelín Martínez took the distinction of Best Spiker and best scorer while her partner Yonkaira Peña was the second most outstanding in that line and was also named Best Receiver.

Puerto Rican Neira Ortiz shone as the best blocker with 25 followed by Candida Arias who stopped the ball 13 times. Puerto Rican Shara Venegas was the Best Defender and Libero.

The captain of the Dominican team Niverka Marte was on the top of the setters with 21 setters.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 10, 2022 – In a hard-fought match, the Dominican Republic   managed to defeat the United States to win gold in the NORCECA Final Six Cup. 

The Caribbean Queens beat the Americans with a score of 3-0 (25-21, 25-13, 26-24), to finish the competition without losing a single set. 

Brayelin Martinez stood out for the Dominicans, who had 20 points and Yonkaira Peña, who finished with 11. For the United States, the best player was Avery Skinner with 11 points. 

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Marcos Kwiek, entrenador de Republica Dominicana: Happy for the victory, thanks to the United States team for the excellent show they gave us. He made us play at a good level for us, that suits us a lot at this level, although the United States is a young team, they have very good players who put us in difficulties on several occasions during the game, but we were able to control and take the victory. 

Michelle Chatman, coach of Unites States: That was so fun, it was an amazing oportunity for our Young players to get out there and play against such a veteran just amazing team that is preparing to go to the World Championship so it was so fun to be on the court and battle the entire match. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 10, 2022 – The Puerto Rican team only needed three sets to defeat the Cuban team and thus keep the Bronze medal. 

The Puerto Ricans defeated the Mexicans in straight sets with a score of (25-16, 25-18, 25-XX) and thus finished in third position in the NORCECA Final Six. 

Karina Ocasio and Brittany Abercrombie were the best scorers for the Puerto Ricans with 13-12 points respectively. For Cuba the best was Ailama Montalvo with 16 points. 

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Natalia Valentin, Captain of Puerto Rico: I think that we executed our serve very well, we practiced a lot in that, we focused on the fact that if we did not take Cuba out of their comfort zone they had to play with all the players as everyone knows Cuba is a very athletic team with a lot of power we knew that our main weapon was the serve and we focused on that. 

Gretell Moreno, Captain of Cuba: I feel very hurt because in the end I was able to give my best despite being hurt, the team really needed it and the Puerto Rican team played very disciplined, they hardly made any unforced errors so they were able to win more easily. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 9, 2022 – The Dominican Republic team defeated the Cuban team in straight sets to earn their pass to the final of the NORCECA Final Six Cup.

The Caribbean queens did not give the Cuban team a chance after beating them with a score of 3-0 (25-20, 25-13, 25-16).

For Las Reinas del Caribe the best were Gaila Gonzalez and Yonkaira Peña with 17 and 13 points respectively, while for Cuba Laura Suarez stood out with 9 points and Greisy Fine with 7.

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic: We prepared ourselves for Cuba’s aggressive game, we had a very close first set but I think that experience spoke for the rest of the match, Cuba is a young team that needs to be playing and it is in our best interest to raise their level because the more level teams have in the area will be much better for us.

Jorge Sosa, coach of Cuba: The Dominican serve was very well structured, our reception specialist did not let us play, she was the one who committed the most fouls today, we could not play with the clarity that we wanted in the mesh, that is our strength, they simply did not allow us to play.

The Dominican Republic will face the United States in the match for the highest medal of this event.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 9, 2022 – In an electrifying encounter, the United States team advanced to the gold medal match after beating Puerto Rico.

The Americans defeated the Puerto Ricans 3-1 with a score of (30-28, 26-28, 25-22, 26-24).
For the United States, Danielle Drews and Stephanie Samedy were the best scorers, both with 21 points. For Puerto Rico Karina Ocasio and Brittany Abercrombie added 23 and 21 points respectively.

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Avery Skinner, player of the United States: I think it was an amazing game for both teams it was a point to point match and for luck we could ended with the best part that was the victory.

Natalia Valentin, player of Puerto Rico: It is always difficult to play against the United States, their game system is very fast and they are agile players who have good blocking, today they defended us all the way, we tried to counterattack but we couldn’t make the ball bounce, definitely a good game for them.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 8, 2022 – In a very intense match, Canada managed to overcome the Mexican team and thus stay with the fifth position of the Final Six of the NORCECA Pan American series.

The Canadians had to battle through five sets to defeat the Mexico  team 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-25, 16-14) to achieve the result obtained.

For Canada, the best were Melissa Langegger and Natasha Calkins with 16 points each, while Mexico had Aime Topete as their best scorer with 20.

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Carolyn O´Dwyer, coach of Canada: I think the match was a Little bit like a roller coaster for both teams having up and downs in the hole game of course I´m happy that ended up with  a win for us and that we showed up that we are a team that can win games.

Rafael Petry, coach of  Mexico: In general, the game was very close, just like the previous one, both teams today were very similar, except for the sets in which both teams were under 20 points. I think that the first ball cost us a little more to be able to kill that first play action, I think that was the determining factor of the match.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 8, 2022 – The Dominican Republic concluded the preliminary round undefeated after beating the United States team in straight sets on the fifth day of competition.

The Queens of the Caribbean defeated the United States team this Thursday night in straight sets with a score of (25-19, 25-17, 25-19).

The Dominican Republic outperformed the United States in kills 51-30, in blocks 5-2 and in serves 4-1.

For the Caribbean Queens the best scorers were Brayelin Martinez and Gaila Gonzalez with 16 and 13 points respectively. For the United States, Danielle Drews was the best with 13.

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic: I think we achieved our first goal, which was to qualify first regardless of being undefeated, it was the first place we were looking for, now we have to keep working, now we have to play Cuba in the semifinals and if we lose that game, everything that has been done is lost.

Michelle Chatman, coach of United States: I think our team competed really well it was an awsome enviroment  the fans were absolutely amazing playing against the Dominican Republic  that is a team that is in preparartion for the World Championship and their pleyers really showed up in the difficult moments and thats how they won.

Canada waited until the end of the regular series to stamp their first win of the NORCECA Final Six of the Pan American Series. 

They put aside the Mexican squad in straight sets by scores of 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 27-25on the middle contest of Thursday afternoon at the National Palace of Volleyball Ricardo Arias at Olympic Dominican Center. 

Canadians Calkins, Attieh, Van Buskirk and Heppell led the North American side with 17, 13, 11 and 10, respectively to the success. Karina Flores finished with 10 for Mexico.

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Melissa Langegger, captain of Canada: I think we show a lot of fight we trying prove us that we are a team and show what we can do and I think we really show that in our game today we executed well in every point and that gave us the victory.

Jocelyn Urias, captain of  Mexico: We entered the court to win, to give it our all, obviously they also came with the same attitude, it was a very hard-fought match in all sets but Canada ended up getting the victory. 

Cuba edged Puerto Rico 3-2 (23-25, 27-25, 22-25, 25-22, 13-15) to conclude the regular series of the NORCECA Final Six Pan American Volleyball Cup on Thursday afternoon at National Palace Ricardo Arias or Dominican Olympic Center. 

The Cubans finished with a 2-4 win-losses and 10 points, while de Puerto Ricans totaled 16 points fruit of 2 victory and 3 defeats. 

Despite losing the five-setter, Puerto Rico dominated in aces scores with a 10-4 difference and established a 19-16 margin in blocks. Cuba led the scores in attacks 68-58. 

Claudia Tarin and Ailama Cesé contributed 23 and 22 points, respectively, for Cuba and Fine contributed 19 tallies. For Puerto Rico, Collazo totaled 23 and Stephanie Enright added 22 points.

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Jorge Sosa, coach of Cuba: The strength of our team is the offensive elements, today Cuba did not win nor did Puerto Rico lose, today I won volleyball because a team of young girls that you manage to reach a fifth set, that is development. It was a game with high scores and a lot of intensity, Puerto Rico played well but in the end things turned out better for us.

Fernando Morales, coach of Puerto Rico: Cuba had a very good game, they were very stable in reception and in attacks they are very powerful, we rotated the players a bit, we rested those who had played every day of course we know that all the players have the level we thought we could have won but all credit to Cuba who had a great match.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, The Dominican Republic host mixed power and finesse both from the service line and attacking near the net to build a wide margin on the scoreboard and get past the United States who defeated Canada 3-0 (25-17, 25 -13, 25-15).

The win kept the Dominican side on an undefeated record of 4-0. On Thursday they will play against the United States (3-1).

The defending champions only had Brayelin González and Gaila González (10) in double figures, but Madeline Guilén added 9 and Angélica Hinojosa and Yonkaira Peña each added 6 points.

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of the Dominican Republic: The most important thing for me is that I have the opportunity to rotate the entire team and let the younger girls gain more experience. We know that what we are going to face in the World Cup is very different from what we are playing here but everything is part of a preparation.

Carolyn O’Dwyer, Coach of Canada: We played today against a very strong team in the Dominican Republic we made a lot of unforced errors that didn’t put us in a good position we were attacking well but we couldn’t find a way to break their blocking system and defense Dominican was really good too.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 7, 2022 – United States defeated Cuba 3-0 (25-18, 27-25, 25-17) improving their win-lost mark to 3-1 at the NORCECA Final Six Volleyball Pan America Cup taking place in the capital of Dominican Republic for the second year in a row. Cuba dropped its record to 1-3.

Stephanie Samedy led the American side with 12 points, followed by Veronica Jones-Perry and Avery Skinner each with 11 marks. Cuban Fine topped all the players in the contest with 16 points. The Cubans committed 24 errors against 14 by United States.

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Victoria Dilfer, player of United States: It was a well runned match for the US team, Cuba is a very physical team that definitely challenged us on a different ways, we handled their strong service well  andwith that we were able to take advantage on our net game.

Gretell Moreno, player of Cuba:

It was a good game, I want to thank the United States team because we are a young team that travels in development and games like this help us grow to be able to one day reach the level that the United States and the Dominican Republic have and also grow ourselves as players.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 7, 2022 – Puerto Rico breezed past Mexico in straight sets improving its win-loss record to 3-1 good for current second place in the NORCECA Final Six Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup in the earliest contest of Thursday.

The score was 25-20, 25-20, 25-8, with the third one being the shortest of this year competition, erasing the 25-11 set by Dominican Republic opening one against the Puerto Ricans in their Wednesday’s match on Wednesday.

Stephanie Enright led the Puerto Rican squad with 17 points, followed by Neira Ortiz and Genesis Collazo each with 13 points. For Mexico, Vanessa Villegas was the best with 7 points.

The record of Mexico fell down to 2-2 with one match to play on Friday against Canada.  

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Fernando Morales, coach of Puerto Rico:  The positive that I see in today’s match after a defeat like yesterday’s gives us peace of mind and confidence for our goal, which is the World Cup, Mexico made us stronger in the first two sets until point 18 and in the end we in the third set we were able to get in on our serve early on and get them into trouble that was the key to this win. 

Rafael Petry, coach of Mexico:  We knew that it was going to be a very complicated game since Puerto Rico is a team that comes with its sights set on the World Cup and its players come with their minds prepared for that. During the game in the transition battle, Puerto Rico was more effective and I think that made the difference in the result. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 6, 2022 – Defending champions and home team Dominican Republic kept sole position of first place at the second edition of NORCECA Final Six Pan American Coup with a third victory without losses after defeating Puerto Rico in straight sets 3-0 (25-11, 25-22, 25-17) on Tuesday night. 

The Queens of the Caribbean dominated in attacks (36-26), blocks (14-4) and service winners (5-3). 

Gaila Gonzalez led the home girls with 13 points, including two blocks and one ace, followed by Brayelin Martínez with 11 points, all via attacks and Candida Arias with 6 blocks. 

Brittany Abercrombie and Karina Ocasio were the best for Puerto Rico each with 9 points. 

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic: We know that this tournament is a tournament where there is obviously a quota for the Pan American Games, we are already classified, we have just come from a tournament and I am trying to give the girls rest to give the newest ones experience and it is preparation for what comes this year which is the World Championship. The most important thing was that they were able to play a good game and very well fought. 

Fernando Morales, coach of Puerto Rico: We knew that we were coming against a world-class team that has been training together for a long time and very few of us have already had high-level matches this summer, today things did not go as we wanted but this match prepares us well for the level we want to reach to try to do my best in the World Cup. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 6, 2022 – The United States won a straight-sets tough contest against their north side contest Canada by score of 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-22) at Volleyball National Palace Ricardo Arias on Tuesday. 

The Americans improved their win-loss balance to 2-1 while the North Americans worsened to 0-3. The winners led in points from the service line 6-5 and 7-4 from the battle defending the net. 

Nia Reed was the best American scorer with 15 points, all but one in attacks, followed by Danielle Drews with 12 points, including three aces. Grills stood out for Canada with 15 tallies, including one block and two aces. 

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Carolyn O´Dwyer, coach of Canada: I think in this game we played a lot of better that in in the first two we did a really good job on the service line that putted some preassure on the other team unfortunately we missed some valuable points that cost us the game, we expect to play better the next game. 

Michelle Chatman, Coach of United States: Our team did a really good job responding from yesterday match  that we were strugg with the receiving, Canada putted some service preassure on us today and our response was better today on that part. I think we grow up as a team through today´s game. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 6, 2022 – Mexico beat Cuba in the first match of five sets of the NORCECA Final Six Pan American Tournament of the current second edition at the Ricardo Arias Volleyball Palace in the Dominican capital. 

The Mexicans prevailed by partial scores of 3-2 (19-25, 25-23, 25-20, 17-25, 15-11) of the match that lasted 1 hour and 58 minutes. 

Aimé Topete led the winners with 22 points that included 7 aces, and was followed by María Fernanda Rodríguez with 20 and Karina Flores with 18. 

The most outstanding Cubans in the offense were Dezirett Madam, who dominated the general list with 25 points, and Ailama Cesé with 19. 

In service winners what opened the eyes was the favorable margin of 16-7 of Mexico in service winners. 

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Rafael Petry, coach of Mexico: We knew that the game was very important for both teams because of the issue of seeking classification against the teams that are part of the event. We had many ups and downs during the match and we had to focus more on the defense that we had already worked on in practice, luckily we were able to adjust that in the tiebreak and that gave us the win. 

Jorge Sosa, Coach of Cuba: Mexico beats us in the middle game, they know how to play without the ball, we have to educate ourselves on that. The problem today was not the opposite, it was us who stopped doing especially in the game in the mesh, one of the strengths of this team is the attack through the middle and that did not work today due to the reception that unfortunately we received today failed. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 5, 2022 – Convincingly and without complications, it was the second victory in a row last night for the Caribbean Queens after having three sets to zero (25-20/25-16/25-12) against the Mexican team, at the end of the second day of the Norceca Final Six Tournament, where the Banreservas Cup is played.

The Dominicans faced no problems to remain undefeated (2-0), as they combined a strong serve, excellent blocking and combined attack to break their rivals who now posted their record (0-2).

The Dominicans’ attack was guided by Yonkaira Peña Isabel, with 14 points, Brayelin Martínez contributed 13, while Madeline Guillén scored 11 points and the left-footed Gaila González left with ten, in the event that brings together six countries and takes place successfully at the Ricardo -Gioriver- Arias Volleyball Palace, of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center.

With her great performance, Peña assumes the leadership of the tournament with the most points scored (18), in the tournament that concludes this coming Saturday.

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It was impossible for the Mexicans to circumvent the iron defense carried out by the girls led by Brazilian Marcos Kwiek, who, unlike on Sunday, did not use his star players, Brenda Castillo and Bethania de la Cruz.

“We went out to give a good game and we were able to achieve it, each one of us went out to comply with the game scheme proposed by our leader, now we have to stay focused to try to keep our undefeated and go out on the field to defend it against Puerto Rico ”, expressed Peña Isabel after the game that lasted 1:10 minutes.

For the defeated, Claudia Río was the most outstanding with 7 points, seconded by Aimé Topete, with six goals.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 5, 2022 – Cuba defeated Canada in consecutive sets this Monday 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-21) to equal their record to a win and a setback after having lost against the Dominican Republic on opening Sunday.

Dezirett Madam and Ailama Cese were the best Cuban scorers with 13 points each. Layne Buskirk led Canada with 9 points.

The winners had an advantage in blocks (8-4) and in aces (7-3) in the game that lasted 1 hour and 21 minutes.

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Gretell Moreno, Captain of Cuba: We knew how to recover from a strong defeat against the Dominican Republic in the first game, we came out with a better attitude on the field and little by little our game flowed, but we have to continue preparing ourselves and continue to iron out those little details that we have to fix in order to reach the level that we we want and return to the world elite.

Melissa Langegger, captain of Canada: I think we had a lot of good fight, we battled every point and we did not win today but here we are as a team here we are as Canada. I think we played better today than yesterday.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 5, 2022 – In a close game from start to finish, Puerto obtained its second victory of the Final Six by defeating the United States 25-22, 28-26, 21-25, 25-20 in the second match of the day on Monday.

A shot from veteran Karina Ocasio gave “Las Nenas” the point they needed to win the first set 25-22 and show them the path to victory on the second date of the fair.

Those led by Fernando Morales extended their unbeaten record to 2-0 and the Americans, who in their debut accounted for Canada 3-0, are now 1-1.

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Morales, in turn, declared that the team defended and had a consistent service, aspects of the game that he hopes will also come out against the Dominican Republic.

Brittany Abercrombie and Ocasio, with 18 and 17 points, respectively, led Puerto Rico’s collegiate attack.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republicm September 4, 2022 – Defending champions Dominican Republic swept Cuba 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-18 to complete the opening actions of the NORCECA Final Six Pan American Women’s Volley ball on Sunday.

The threesome of Yonkaira Peña, Gaila Gonzalez and Brayelin Martinez topped the offense of the Dominican side popularly called The Queens of the Caribbean with 14, 12 and 10 points respectively,

Cubans Dezirett Madam and Ailama Cese each landed 9 points as the best scorers for the defeated side.

As a team the home side, supported by an enthusiastic crowd at the Volleyball Palace Ricardo Arias, had the advantage in service winners 7-3 and the blocking category 10-6.

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic: It is very good to have Cuba back in international events. That is something that we need for Cuba to raise its level, for us to have more level teams in our area because we are all growing. Today we tried to play our game respecting the tactics and techniques It is a long tournament because it is played every day and this is just the beginning.

Tomas Fernandez, coach of Cuba: To thank the Dominican Republic for the intensity they had playing with us, for me it is a pleasant headache to face the Dominican Republic, which is a team that has a lot of prominence not only in the Pan-American region but also worldwide and you learn a lot playing against this set.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 4, 2022 – United States dominated a close match against Mexico but their lead never was never in danger in the second contest of opening day at the NORCECA Final Six Volleyball Pan American Cup on Sunday afternoon.

The final score was 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-18).

Danielle Drews was the best scorer for the winning side with 15 points escorted by Veronica Jones Perry and Alison Bastianelli with 13 and 11, respectively, and Nia Reed with 10. Karina Flores reached the 10-point wall for Mexico.

The Americans totaled 10 aces from the service line and 7 blocking at the net.

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Danielle Drews, player of United States: It was a good team win we were able to use our entire lineup and everyone did their job and we were able to come successful as a group, I think Mexico is a good team they play good defense and I wish them good luck the rest of the tournament.

Claudia Rios, player of Mexico: It seemed like a very difficult game for us. The United States is a fairly strong team with young players, but with a lot of experience We had already faced them in the last Pan American Cup, this time we tried to give our best on the court but we could not achieve the victory.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 4, 2022- Puerto Rico enjoyed an effective debut at the Second Pan American Cup NORCECA Final Six by riding Canada in straight sets (25-18, 25-16, 25-18) this Sunday at the National Volleyball Palace “Ricardo Arias”. 

Veteran Karina Ocasio, in a return to the Puerto Rican team, showed that she hadn’t lost an inch of physical form and much less technical. 

Ocasio finished the match with 22 points that included 5 blocks. She was followed by Pilar Victoria with 10 points. Canadians Layne Buskirk and Gabrielle Attieh each had 8 points. 

Puerto Rico was widely leading in kills 44-27 and in blocks 9-4. 

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Fernando Morales, coach of Puerto Rico: The girls came out hungry to win this game. We are looking for rhythm in preparation for the world championship. We have two players recovering from injury but thanks to the fact that those who played were able to do their job and we were able to give them rest so we could have them available in the strongest games. 

Carolyn O´Dwyer, coach of Canada: I think we have played against one really very strong opponent in Puerto Rico. We did not have a good coordination in our side and it is hard to beat a good opponement when you do that. We will not make many errors for sure. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 4, 2022 – The official Opening Ceremony of the NORCECA Final Six Women’s Tournament began with a parade of the teams around the playing court of the National Volleyball Palace Ricardo Arias. 

It was presided over by Mr. Cristobal Marte Hoffiz, president of NORCECA and also First Executive Vice President of FIVB who was joined by the Minister of Sports Francisco Camacho ,the president of Dominican Olympic Committee, Antonio Acosta, and the president of the Dominican Federation, Ramon García. 

Also present were Mr. Luis Mejía Oviedo, president of Caribe Centro Sports Organization and Dr. Jose Joaquin Puello former president of DOC and ^the CACSO Sports Organization now CCSO. 

Marte Hoffiz thanked Banco of Reservas for being the main sponsor of the competition, which was represented over by the Administrative Vice President Jose Manuel Almonte. 

Among the celebrities supporting the competition who attended the first day of action was TV Star Alicia Ortega who received the recognition by Marte Hoffiz. 

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 3, 2022 – On the eve of the start of the Final Six Women’s Tournament, all of the coaches expressed their opinions of the winning chances of their sides of the daily competitions.  

During the traditional inspection of the participants, the technical directors met with the press department of NORCECA, the organization in charge of the event. 

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Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic:              

We are going to take advantage of the tournament to continue the final preparation part with a view to the World Championship, which is the biggest event that we have this year. We are the venue and the expectations are to at least reach the final and discuss the gold. We are the current two-time champions of this competition but this is sport and all the teams come to the same, what I can assure you is that we will play to win all the games. 

Carolyn O´Dwyer, coach of Canada: 

I think we are really excited that it is a pretty similar team that we had at the PanAm Cup so we just really looking to see how much we can improve on our performance there.  We are competing with very strong teams so we will see how we do to get as far as possible. 

 Tomas Fernandez, coach of Cuba 

Our main objective was to qualify for the Central American Games and we achieved it in Hermosillo. What we want to achieve in this tournament is for Cuba to get as close as possible to the podium and try to improve in the Pan American ranking. 

 Rafael Petry, coach of Mexico: 

It will be a tough competition, we know that the teams are well prepared, our objective here is to be fighting for a medal again, it will not be easy, but we will try to represent Mexico as well as possible. 

Fernando Morales, coach of Puerto Rico: 

In this tournament, our goal is to win a medal. We come from a break as the Puerto Rican League was played in the summer and ended three weeks ago, so we gave the girls a break because they needed it. We only had three training sessions before coming here, but we are also using this competition as preparation for the World Cup. These games are going to help us a lot and we hope to be in our best shape at the end of the tournament.  

Michelle Chatman, coach of United States: 

We expect that our team plays with a lot of passion and a lot excitement and so we are expecting our players to play well. I think that all of the teams competing here are in very good shape; we all trained hard so it is going to be a lot of fun to play the teams on the court and compete. 

SANTO DOMINGO Dominican Republic, September 1, 2022 – Defending champions and home team Dominican Republic will make it’s debut at the second final edition of the Final Six Tournament on the night cap of opening game on September 4 in the National Volleyball Palace of the Dominican capital.

The local girls will challenge Cuba at 19:00. Previously Puerto Rico will play Canada and the United States will meet Mexico at 15:00 and 17:00 respectively.

The complete schedule is as follows:

Full Schedule

Sept. 4

15:00 PUR v CAN

17:00 USA v MEX

19:00 DOM v CUB

Sept. 5 

15:00 CUB v CAN

17:00 USA v PUR

19:00 DOM v MEX

Sept. 6  

15:00 CUB v MEX

17:00 USA v CAN

19:00 DOM v PUR

Sept. 7 

15:00 MEX v PUR

17:00 USA v CUB

19:00 DOM v CAN

Sept. 8 

15:00 PUR v CUB

17:00 CAN v MEX

19:00 DOM v USA

Sept. 9 

15:00 5 v 6

17:00 2 v 3

19:00 1 v 4

Sept. 10  

17:00 loser v loser

19:00 winner v winner

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, August 31 2022 – Five-time Pan American Cup champions Dominican Republic will be seeking it’s second Final Sx crown in as many editions when they start playing next Sunday at the Volleyball National Palace in Santo Domingo.

The inaugural event was high-lighted in 2021 by the retirement of long time Dominican star Prisilla Rivera after 20 years of action with the national squad.

The first Pan American Cup won by the Queens of the Caribbean was achieved in 2008 in Mexicali, Mexico under the wheel of Dominican coach Miguel Beato Cruz. Then the 4 others were attained – in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2022 following the instructions of Brazilian Marcos Kwiek.

Thousands of spectators are expected in the Santo Domingo venue, which has been renovated with air conditioner for the comfort of the high temperatures the country is enduring at this time.

The other teams competing are United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico.