Puerto Rican and Canadian girls grab tickets to Nanjing

CAROLINA, Puerto Rico, April 13, 2014 – Teams of Puerto Rico and Canada scored convincing victories on Sunday to grab the last two NORCECA available spots to the girls’ beach volleyball of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

The home girls Lina Bernier and Valeria Cajigas and the Canadian identical twins Megan and Nicole McNamara joined four other pairs already qualified to Nanjing by winning different zonal events last year and early 2014.

Backed by an energetic crowd, Benier and Cajigas overcame a feisty Mexican duo of Stephanie Burnside and Diana Valdez to win 21-17, 21-18 with well located attacks. The Puerto Rican pair had to battle three match-points before finally achieving the victory.

Earlier on Sunday, Benier and Cajigas breezed past the Panamanian team of Adjanis Arosemena and Keysi Caballero 21-6, 21-5.

The powerful McNamaras crushed Grenada’s Jomelar Billy and Carsie Paul 21-1, 21-12 and continued with a 21-11, 21-8 victory over Suriname’s Sigourney Kame and Gabrielle Boutersem to secure the pass to the Youth Olympics.

The other female teams from NORCECA qualified to Nanjing are the following:

St Lucia’s Dala Noel and Skye Mondesir, Trinidad & Tobago’s Chelsi Ward and Malik Davidson, United States’ Suzanne Munno and Sarah Sponcil and Guatemala’s Natalia Giron and Estefanie Bethancourt.

Girls’Quarter Finals: PUR d. PAN 2-0 (21-6, 21-5), MEX d. CRC 2-0 (21-5, 21-12), CAN d. GRN 2-0 (21-1, 21-12), SUR d CAY 2-0 (21-12, 21-16). Finals:  PUR d. MEX 2-0 (21-17, 21-18), CAN d. SUR 2-0 (21-11, 21-8)). Positions 3-4: MEX d. SUR 2-0 (21-14, 21-16). Positions  5-8: CRC d. PAN 2-0 (21-18, 21-14), CAY d GRN 2-0 (21-14, 21-10), CAY d CRC 2-0 (21-12, 21-10), PAN d. GRN 2-0 (21-15, 21-15).Positions 9-12: NCA d. HON 2-0 (21-11,21-15), ESA d. ANT 2-0 (21-10, 21-5).

Girls’ Final Ranking: 1-PUR & CAN,  3-MEX,  4- SUR, 5-CAY  6- CRC,  7- PAN, 8- GRN, 9-NCA, 10-ESA, 11-HON, 12-ANT.