Boca Chica Beach welcomes NORCECA Beach Circuit

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic, April 4, 2012 – The Boca Chica Presidente Beach Volleyball Tournament, the third stage of the 2012 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit will take place from April 6-8.

For the seventh consecutive year, the beach with pearly white sands located 20 miles east of Santo Domingo will welcome the teams from the NORCECA during the Easter Sunday weekend.

Boca Chica has played hosts to the event since 2006 when the competition was played exclusively in the men’s division.

Fourteen men’s duos and eleven women’s pairs representing sixteen countries are registered to compete for a total purse of US$10,000. Hosts Dominican Republic will have two entries in the women’s division while Puerto Rico has registered two teams in the men’s event.

Puerto Rico’s Roberto “Rafu” Rodriguez, winner of the first two tournaments of the year with Erick Haddock and Pablo Guzman as partners in Cayman Islands and Guatemala respectively, will  team up this time with Orlando Irizarry.

In last year’s edition at Boca Chica, USA women’s Whitney Pavlik and Jenny Kropp claimed the gold medal following a 21-5, 21-0 victory over compatriots Ashley Ivy and Lisa Rutledge when Ivy couldn’t continue playing due to a knee injury.

Cuba’s Karel Peña and Javier Jimenez took home the men’s gold after a 21-18, 21-13 victory over Mexico’s Aldo Miramontes and Juan Virgen.

The preliminary enquiry and technical meeting will take place on Thursday 5 at the convention center of BelleVue Hotel, official site of the event.

“We are very happy to be again in Boca Chica,” technical director Arnaldo Sanchez said. “This is a traditional leg in our circuit and we are expecting a high level competition as we also had in the two previous events at Cayman Islands and Guatemala”.

Men’s teams:  Rixon Joseph/Paul Richards (Antigua), Byron Ferguson/Princtanique Wilson (Bahamas), Josh Binstock/Martin Reader (Canada), Giandro Tokaay/Quinten Anthony (Curacao), German Recio/Luis Adames (Dominican Republic), Carlos Leiva/David Vargas (El Salvador), Adam LaFeuillee/Greg Gilbert (Grenada), Andy Leonardo/Erick Garrido (Guatemala), Gatasheu Bonner/Ryck Webb (Jamaica), Pablo Guzman/Erick Haddock (Puerto Rico-1), Roberto Rodríguez/Orlando Irizarry (Puerto Rico-2), Fabien Whitfield/Simon Blake (Trinidad and Tobago), Cluevvan Cumbebatch/Daryl Franklin (Saint Vincent and Grenadines), Evan Engle/Stafford Slick (United States).

Women’s teams: Jamie Broder/Kristina Valjas (Canada), Ingrid Morales/Natalia Alfaro (Costa Rica), Nairobi Agramonte/Diana Peguero (Dominican Republic-1), Karla Montilla/Deborah Constanzo (Dominican Republic-2), Marcela Avalos/Diana Romero (El Salvador), Stefany Bolaños/Lourdes Ramírez (Guatemala), Martha Revuelta/Vanessa Virgen (México), Yarleen Santiago/Yamileska Yantín (Puerto Rico), Nikita Campbell/Ladonna Woodley (Saint Vincent and Grenadines), Kaitlin Sather/Jessica Gysin (United States), Caitlin Dowd/Valissia Brathwaite (U.S. Virgin Islands).