PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic, June 8, 2023 - Canada picked up two bronze medals and two berths to the World Championship at the NORCECA Continental Qualifying Beach Volleyball Tournament this week at Los Corales Beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Women’s teams from Puerto Rico, the United States, Canada and the Dominican Republic qualified for the World Championship, which will be held in Tlaxcala, Mexico.

In the final match, Puerto Rico's Allanis Navas/María González took the gold after beating Kelley Kolinske/Hailey Harward of the United States 2-1 (18-21, 21-17, 15 -11).

Canada's Shanice Marcelle (Victoria, BC) and Sophie Bukovec (Toronto) won the bronze medal match defeating Bethania Almanzar/Julibeth Payano of the Dominican Republic (4th place) 2-0 (21-19, 21-11).

Top four teams qualified in both genders. 

Cuba, Nicaragua, the United States and Canada men’s teams received the NORCECA berths to the World Championship.

Canadians Sam Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Dan Dearing (Toronto, ON) were awarded bronze due to an injury of Andrew Benesh with teammate Miles Partain of the United States (4th place).

Dearing said: "Sam and I are excited to be heading to our second World Championships as a partnership! We are a different team this year and looking forward to showing the world this heading into the two Canadian events coming up in July (in Edmonton and Montreal)."

Scheduled for October 6 to 15, Mexico will host the 14th edition of the Beach Volleyball World Championships and the first hosted outside of Europe for 20 years.

Said Schachter: "Dan and I are thrilled to qualify for another world championships! In a World Championships so close to home, we are very excited to share this experience with our family and friends. A good result will go very far in our efforts to qualify for the Olympics, so we are looking to put forth our best performance to date."

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Other news:

Beach Trials Update: https://volleyball.ca/en/news/beach-volleyball-trials-update

Info and photo: NORCECA

Volleyball Canada Media Contact:
Jackie Skender
jskender@volleyball.ca
Mobile: 613-794-7676