Coaches with different goals in Santo Domingo

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, October 12, 2017 – While teams of Guatemala and Jamaica are looking to get experience in their development process, the squads of Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico are aiming to get the two tickets available to next year’s FIVB Women’s World Championship.

The four sides are competing at the NORCECA Group A Final Qualification Tournament to take place in Santo Domingo from October 13 to 15. At the same dates, Trinidad & Tobago are hosting Mexico, Costa Rica and Dominica in Group C.

Canada and Cuba already secured berths in Japan at the Group B tournament held in Langley, Canada.

The United States are also qualified as current world champions.

Coaches of the teams made their statements during the preliminary inquiry performed on Thursday by members of the Control Committee.

Coaches statements:

William Fernández/ Coach of Guatemala: “It is a great opportunity to play against teams of good level like Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic and get the experience. The goal is to beat Jamaica and improve our ranking within NORCECA”

Ricardo Chong/ Coach of Jamaica: “It is a very tough tournament since we will play against very strong teams but we will try to play our best game and get the experience. The last time we had the chance to play against Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic was four years ago.”

Javier Gaspar/Coach of Puerto Rico: “The objective is to get the ticket to the world championship in Japan. Each match is important and we want to secure the qualification as quick as possible and to avoid the possibility of deciding it in the last match against Dominican Republic. We don’t underestimate any opponent so we will go out to play hard every match.”

Marcos Kwiek/Coach of Dominican Republic: “Our first objective is to qualify to the world championship and also to keep a high level in our game. We have worked well before the tournament so I will demand from my players to give their best since from here we start our preparation for the world event. We all respect each opponent.”