Three spots to U19 World Championship available at Pan Am Cup

MONTERREY, Mexico, March 19, 2017 – Nine teams from the Americas are set to battle for three vacancies available at the U19 Volleyball Boys’ Pan American Cup to the age-group 2017 FIVB World Championship to be held in Bahrain from August 18 to 27.

Six teams from NORCECA Confederation will vie for two spots to the world championship while the remaining berth will be decided between three sides representing the South American region.

The six NORCECA sides battling for two spots are Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico while the three teams from South America ready to compete in Monterrey are Chile, Colombia and Peru.

Teams will be divided into three pools of three with the winners with the two best records will move directly to the semifinal phase. The pool winner with the worst record will join the second place teams in the quarterfinals.

Three daily matches are scheduled in the pool play preliminary round as well as in the classification rounds, including medal matches.

Jamaica and Puerto Rico meet in the first contest on Monday followed by the matches between Chile and Peru and host Mexico against Costa Rica.

The U19 Boys’ Pan American Cup in Monterrey is the second edition of the intercontinental event. The first one was disputed in Tijuana, Mexico in 2011 with Brazil defeating Puerto Rico in straight sets for the gold medal. United States won the bronze with a victory over Mexico also in consecutive sets. The tournament was not held in 2013 and 2015.

Cuba and United States of America grabbed their tickets to the event in Bahrain last year as champions and runner ups on last year’s NORCECA Championship held in Havana, Cuba. Argentina and Brazil qualified at the CSV event held in Lima, Peru also in 2016.

Tunisia and Egypt qualified through the African Championship held in Tunis last year. Four teams from Asia will punch tickets in early April in Myanmar and six teams from the European Confederation complete the list of 20 teams in Bahrain.

Pools composition:

Pool A; Dominican Republic, Chile and Peru. Pool B: Colombia, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. Pool C: Costa Rica, Mexico and Nicaragua.

Preliminary Round Schedule:

March 20

16:00 Jamaica v Puerto Rico

18:00 Chile v Peru

20:00 Mexico v Costa Rica

March 21

16:00 Colombia v Jamaica

18:00 Nicaragua v Costa Rica

20:00 Dominican Republic v Chile

March 22

16:00 Peru v Dominican Republic

18:00 Puerto Rico v Colombia

20:00 Mexico v Nicaragua