The Hato Mayor Beach Volleyball Tournament to be held from 31 October to 4 November 2019 at the Doña Callita Tourism Ranch in eastern Hato Mayor is dedicated to The Queens of the Caribbean, the much-heralded Dominican national women’s volleyball team. Competitors are coming from 12 countries for matches that will be played in the 2019 North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (Norceca) Circuit’s ninth stage. 1-3 November. The event is a qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The Dominican team is the winner of the gold medal in the sport at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
The competition will take place in the facilities of Ranch Doña Callita, an eco-tourism facility owned by Hato Mayor Senator Ruben Cruz, an avid fan of beach volleyball.
The facility has two permanent beach volleyball courts that are used for the annual tournaments organized by Senator Cruz during the weekend of Good Friday to Easter Sunday.
All the players will be lodged in the three-story building hotel with a comfortable restaurant, swimming pool and other amenities.
“The environment makes this place a unique site in the Norceca Circuit,” said Nelson Ramirez, the technical director of the organizing committee. “I am sure the players will love playing in courts located a stone throw away from the lodging place.”
The double-gender event will feature teams hailing from Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Martinique, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands and host Dominican Republic. A and B women and men teams will play for the Dominican Republic.
The Hato Mayor tournament will be the third to take place in the Dominican Republic in 2019. The first was in Punta Cana with the other scheduled in Boca Chica from October 3 to 7.
Norceca reports that the Cuban team of Yanisleidis Sanchez and Lidiannis Echeverría, silver medalists in Boca Chica earlier this month and bronze winners at home in Varadero, are one of the pre-tournament favorites among the women. American Falyn Fonoimoana will be playing alongside with Corine Quiggle. Falyn won the bronze at Aguascalientes, Mexico and Cayman Islands, and the silver in Varadero with Nicolette Martin as her partner. Canadian Jake McNeil, winner of the bronze medal in Punta Cana with Liam Kopp, teams up this time with William Hoey.
Pool play is scheduled to take will take place on Friday with the completion of pool play and the quarterfinals are scheduled for Saturday. The semifinals and medal matches will be disputed on Sunday.
Women’s teams
Belize (Clara Sabal/Kelsey Balderramos), Canada-A (Anna Suen Dunn/Rian Lenarduzzi), Canada-B (Alexandra Poletto/Megan Nash), Costa Rica (Mariela Quesada/Katherine Quesada), Cuba (Yanisleidis Sánchez/Lidiannis Echeverría), Dominican Republic-A (Michelle de la Cruz/Julibeth Payano), Dominican Republic-B (Raquel Ferrand/Jenny Paulino), El Salvador (Kathya Vásquez/María Fernanda Vargas), Martinique (Cristelle Choux/Carole Herve Choux), Nicaragua (Swan Mendoza/Lolette Rodríguez), Puerto Rico (María González/Bianca Torres), Trinidad & Tobago (Suraya Chase/LaTeisha Joseph), United States (Corinne Quiggle/Falyn Fonoimoana), US Virgin Islands (Melanie Valenciana/Taylor Nutterfield).
Men’s teams
Belize (Francis Hauze/Michael Jenkins), Canada-A (Simon Fecteau-Boutin/Ivan Reka), Canada-B (Jake McNeil/William Hoey), Costa Rica (Boris Duarte/Sebastián Valenciano), Dominican Republic-A (Jean Carlos Espinal/Raymer Sarmiento), Dominican Republic-B (Alex Medina/Alejandro Pérez), El Salvador (Carlos Escobar/David Vargas), Martinique (Martell Bosqui/Brice Hardy Dessources), Nicaragua (Rubén Mora/Dany López), Puerto Rico (Kevin Rodríguez/Cristian Encarnación), Trinidad & Tobago (Marlon Phillip/Karem Thomas), United States-A (Chaim Schalk/Jeremy Casebeer), United States-B (Timothy Brewster/Jonathan Ferrary).
The event is part of the 2019 Norceca Beach Volleyball Tour.
Santo Domingo will be the host of the Norceca Women’s Qualification Tournament from 10-12 January 2020 at the Palacio de los Deportes Virgilio Travieso Soto at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center. This event is also a qualifier for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The competitors are Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
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Norceca
30 October 2019