December 18, 2023 – Two Canadian teams bring home silver from the 2023 NORCECA Beach Volleyball Continental Tour Finals, which concluded on Sunday at Juan Dolio beach in Dominican Republic. 

In the women’s match for gold, Megan Kraft and Terese Cannon of the United States took the tie-break set over Canada’s Sarah Pavan and Molly McBain 2-1 (21-16, 14-21, 15-11).
  
In the semifinals, Pavan and McBain quickly defeated Valentina López/Kianny Quesada from Costa Rica 2-0 (21-9, 21-13).  For the women’s bronze, María González/Allanis Navas of Puerto Rico beat Valentina Molina/Quesada of Costa Rica 2-0 (21-6, 21-10).
 
Cuba’s Noslen Díaz and Jorge Alayo battled Canada’s Sam Schachter and Daniel Dearing in two close sets (24-22, 22-20) for the men’s title of the Tour Finals. It was a re-match of last year’s Finals, but Schachter and Dearing won gold in 2022.
 
Alayo and Díaz advanced to the gold medal match by defeating Rubén Mora/Jefferson Cascante of Nicaragua 2-0 (21-9, 21-14) in semifinals, while Schachter/Dearing beat Miles Partain/Andrew Benesh of the United States 2-0 (21-16, 21-19).

In the bronze medal match, Partain/Benesh defeated Mora/Cascante 2-0 (21-16, 21-9), winning their first NORCECA Beach Tour medal.

A total of seventeen countries (14 women’s teams and 16 men’s teams) were competing for valuable ranking points, which is part of the continental qualification system for Paris 2024.

Last week, Canada’s Tynan Gannett & Steven Abrams won bronze at the NORCECA U 23 Beach Volleyball Tournament also held at Juan Dolio beach, Dominican Republic. Cuba won gold, USA silver.

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

Photo: Norceca