NORCECA Qualifier to be held in Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, October 29, 2012 – The FIVB Men’s World Championship Qualification Tournament NORCECA First Round Group C will take place at the Ricardo Arias Pavilion of Santo Domingo on November 3-4.

Teams of U.S. Virgin Islands, Haiti, Guadeloupe and hosts Dominican Republic will compete in a round-robin event with the top three teams advancing to next year’s second round.

First and second placed sides will play for the top position while teams placed third and fourth will define the remaining ticket to the 2013 phase.

Dominican Republic is currently the number 10 in NORCECA’s rankings while U.S. Virgin Islands is next, among the participating teams, at 15th place followed by Haiti (28) and Guadeloupe (31).

The home team won the bronze medal at the Men’s Pan American Cup last July and then took part in the 2013 FIVB World League losing to The Netherlands both matches by 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-21) and 3-2 (25-27, 25-21, 24-26, 30-28, 16-14).

The NORCECA-C event is the seventh of eight men’s tournaments scheduled in 2012 and the early start of the qualification process is part of the global development plan of the confederation by giving more opportunities of competing to the less developed countries.

Previous events were held in Saint Lucia, El Salvador, British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, French Saint Martin and Cayman Islands.

The competition calendar is as follows:

November 3
09:00 Dominican Republic v Guadeloupe
11:00 U.S. Virgin Islands v Haiti
18:00 U.S. Virgin Islands v Guadeloupe
20:00 Dominican Republic v Haiti

November 4
09:00 Haiti v Guadeloupe
11:00 Dominican Republic v U.S. Virgin Islands
18:00 Third v Fourth
20:00 First v Second

Results of past events

Group B at St Lucia (April 27-29)
1. St Lucia, 2. St Vincent & Grenadines, 3. Grenada, 4. St Eustatius
Group G at El Salvador (May 18-20)
1. Honduras, 2. Panamá, 3. El Salvador, 4. Turks & Caicos
Group F at British Virgin Islands (June 6-8)
1. Dominica, 2. St Kitts & Nevis, 3. British Virgin Islands, 4. Montserrat
Group H at Costa Rica (July 27-29)
1. Guatemala, 2. Costa Rica, 3. Nicaragua, 4. Belize
Group D at French St Martin (August 31-September 2)
1. Antigua & Barbuda, 2. French St Martin, 3. Anguilla, 4. Dutch St Marteen, 5. Bermuda
Group E at Cayman Islands (October 6-7)
1.Suriname, 2. Barbados, 3. Aruba, 4. Cayman Islands