The Fourth Panamerican Volleyball Cup opens in Santo Domingo today, at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center’s Volleyball Pavilion. Rounds will take place between 10-18 June and the best of the Americas will vie for positions to compete in the upcoming World Grand Prix in 2006 to be held in Germany, Italy and Japan. Twelve teams from the Americas are competing for one of four Latin American positions in the world event. Three matches a day will be held.
For the first round, Group A is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the DR. Group B contenders are the US, Cuba, Barbados, Canada, Jamaica and Mexico. In the next round, the best four teams of each group will compete to win event medals and the right to compete in the Grand Prix.
The Dominican team is a strong contender for one of the slots to the Grand Prix. The country won the gold medal at the 2003 Pan American Games.
Dominican head coach Francisco Cruz Jimenez told Norceca online publication that the Dominican Team “even with the absence of attacker Milagros Cabral due to injury, has the capability of winning the competition.” “We have enough depth and responsibility is shared among all the players,” he said. “We showed it during our last competition in China where we defeated teams like Japan and Bulgaria.” The Dominican Team is composed of Annerys Valdez, Yudelkis Bautista, Dahiana Burgos, Evelyn Carrera, Alexandra Caso, Sofia Heredia, Cindy Rondon, Juana Gonzalez, Karla Echenique, Priscila Rivera, Cosiris Rodriguez, Kenia Moreta and Sidalka Nunez.
Tickets are RD$100 for the three games at the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Center Volleyball Pavilion and RD$50 to watch games held at the Handball Pavilion in the Mirador del Este Olympic facility. The games will be broadcast on RNN (Channel 27) of Telecable Tricom.
See http://www.norceca.org/