For the last five years, the Cayman Islands has launched the region’s biggest volleyball tournament. For 2014, that privilege will go elsewhere.
Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic will serve as the opening stage for this year’s North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation Beach Volleyball Circuit on April 6-21. Cayman will be the second stop on April 23-28. The competition will run until November with over a dozen legs around the region.
In a press release, NORCECA said the tournament is one of many events planned this year. The statement reads, “Beach volleyball continues to experience an amazing growth within the NORCECA Confederation as 18 double-gender tournaments were announced as part of the 2014 Circuit. The tour includes six stops in Mexico, two each in the United States and the Dominican Republic and single events in the Cayman Islands, Guatemala, Canada, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago.
The 2014 beach volleyball program of NORCECA also includes 14 men’s and 14 women’s competitions corresponding to the Continental Cup, starting the qualification process towards the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Besides those NORCECA events, the FIVB U17 World Championship will take place in Nayarit, Mexico on July 15-21 and the FIVB Open Championship will be contested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico on May 6-12. The U-19 NORCECA Championships are on Aug. 6-11, the AFECAVOL Olympic Youth Qualification Tournament is in Guatemala on Jan. 31-Feb. 3 and the final playoff towards the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games is in Puerto Rico on April 10-14.
Cayman has hosted the NORCECA circuit opener since 2009, attracting increasing numbers of teams and players. There is also a history of success in the competition as last year, the female tandem of Cristin Alexander and Jessica Wolfenden finished tied for eighth in the final standings. Local men – such as Richard Campbell and Duncan Hamann – were 16th out of 24 countries.
In addition to the NORCECA tournament, Cayman will be one of 16 countries taking part – with male and female teams – at the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico next November.
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