Dominican Republic, December 14, 2025 – Canada’s Sam Schachter and Jonny Pickett won the 2025 NORCECA Tour Finals title in Juan Dolio on Sunday after defeating Cuba’s Damián Gómez and Eblis Veranes in straight sets, 2-0 (21-18, 22-20). 

This is the first NORCECA Tour gold medal for Schachter (Richmond Hill, ON) and Pickett (Wiarton, ON) as a team. Two-time Olympian Schachter previously won silver at the 2024 NORCECA Tour Finals with Dan Dearing and captured gold with Dearing at the 2022 Finals. 

Pickett told NORCECA: “This was a great experience, my first NORCECA Finals with Sam; we were able to get the win here in beautiful Dominican Republic. Now we have a good start for next year moving into the World Tour.” 

“This is something we’ve been working on, so we’re happy with that,” said Schachter. Speaking about the final match “my partner absolutely took over with aces and blocks, you could see how talented he is”. He added “I’m proud of how we are working together as a team. We’re excited to have earned a lot of points."

El Salvador’s Cristopher and Yoel Guardado secured their first-ever bronze medal on the NORCECA Tour following an exciting three-set victory over Dominican cousins Hayerling and Melvin De Jesús, 2–1 (21–19, 20–22, 18–16). The Guardado twins extended their strong run after claiming their first gold medal at the previous Tour stop in Managua. 

In the semifinals, Schachter and Pickett defeated the Dominican duo of De Jesús/De Jesús 2–0 (21–15, 21–11), while Gómez and Veranes advanced to the gold medal match with a 2–0 (21–15, 21–13) victory over the Guardado twins. 

On the women’s side, the American duo of Geena Urango and Megan Rice won the gold medal match of the 2025 Tour Finals and eleventh stage of the event, with a hard-fought 2-1 (21-19, 19-21, 15-5) victory against Marie-Alex Bélanger and Lea Monkhouse from Canada on Sunday.

Bélanger/Monkhouse, now Tour Finals silver medallists, defeated Puerto Ricans María González and Allanis Navas 2-0 (21-14, 21-11) in the semis to reach the final. Puerto Rico, who won nine NORCECA beach medals this year, went on to take bronze.

The NORCECA Tour Finals award double NORCECA and FIVB ranking points, which are crucial for the upcoming season and major international events. For countries seeking qualification for the 2026 Central American and Caribbean Games, to be held here in Juan Dolio, this tournament represented the final opportunity to secure their place.
 
More info: www.norceca.net