MONTERREY, Mexico, December 22, 2007.- Cuba will enter the Olympic Games for the eighth time after scoring one clear victory in straight sets over Canada (25-19, 25-9, 25-16) in the gold medal clash of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier.

Winners of the gold medal in Barcelona ’92, Atlanta ’96 and Sidney 2000, the Cubans took the bronze medal in Athens ’04. They also participated in Munich ’72, Montreal ’76 and Moscow ’80.

Veteran Yumilka Ruiz had 17 points for Cuba and Kenia Carcaces and Nancy Carrillo each added 11 tallies. Setter Yanelis Santos had 6 of 13 Cuban’s blocks and totalled 9 points. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 22, 2007.- Puerto Rico resisted a come-from- behind surge of its rival and beat Dominican Republic in a sensational match for the bronze medal at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier. The scores were 25-22, 25-23, 23-25, 15-25, 22-20.

Puerto Rican Sarai Alvarez was the best scorer of the match with 30 points. Aury Cruz had 22 and Eva Cruz 10. Meanwhile, Dominicans Bethania de la Cruz and Sidarka Nunez had 26 and 20 points respectively, Annerys Vargas scored 14 and Cosiri Rodriguez 10. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 22, 2007.- Call it raw talent or a team in the building process. That is the way scouts give their qualifications when projecting a team or a particular player.

Trinidad & Tobago exited the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier without a victory or having won a single set, but they left quite an impression on the eyes of those judging athletic qualities and potential. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 21, 2007.- Canada scored a major surprise by blanking Dominican Republic and moving to a match for the gold medal and the Beijing Games’ berth against Cuba at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier. The scores were 27-25, 25-17, 25-19.

Tasha Holness and Stacey Gordon were the best Canadians with 14 and 13 points while Milagros Cabral had 12 for Dominican Republic.

“It is a great day for Canada’s volleyball because is the first victory over Dominican Republic in eight years,” said Naoki Miyashita, the coach of Canada. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 21, 2007.- Cuba advanced to the final match of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier with a  straight sets victory over Puerto Rico. The score was 25-23, 25-19, 25-12.

Yumilka Ruiz topped the Cuban offence with 15 points and Nancy Carrillo added 12. For Puerto Rico, Sarai Alvarez and Aury Cruz had 11 and 10 respectively.

“We committed many errors in the first set both in reception and serving,” said Antonio Perdomo, the Cuban coach. “But fortunately we improved our serve starting midway of the second set and it was really nasty. We have been playing better and better and we need to improve tomorrow in the final to attain our objective.”

“The experience of the Cubans allows them to play these matches under pressure. We could not capitalize their mistakes in the first set and couldn’t keep the lead in the second. The third set was a knockout.”  More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 21, 2007.- Xitlali Herrera belongs to the new breed of Mexican Volleyball players and the slender teenager is giving signs of a promising future in the sport.

Volleyball comes natural to Herrera as her mother Nilia played the sport and two uncles –Lucio and Imelda- were members of the National Team as is currently her brother Edgar.

Xitlali, who participated in the Girl’s World Youth Championship this year, is emerging as one of the favourites to win the “Rising Star” award to be presented at the end of the Women’s Olympic Qualifier to the most outstanding player under 18 years-old. More Spanish

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 21, 2007.- Mexico finished in the fifth position of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier by defeating Trinidad & Tobago in straights sets by scores of 25-5, 25-23, 25-13.

Martha Revuelta was the best Mexican with 12 points, Bibi Candelas added 9, Carolina Carranzo scored 8 and Celida Cordova contributed 7, all with serves.

Mexico trounced Trinidad & Tobago in the first set with a flurry of serves that caused many troubles to the opponent’s reception. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 20, 2007.- Puerto Rico will meet Cuba in the semi finals of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier following the victory in straight sets over Mexico by score of 25-19, 25-23, 25-22 on Thursday.

Eva Cruz and Aury Cruz had 15 and 12 points for Puerto Rico. Sarai Alvarez had 9 and Tatiana Encarnacion added 8. Bibi Candelas and Martha Revuelta had 15 and 12 respectively for Mexico.

“We took the game very seriously against Mexico,” said Juan Carlos Nunez, the Puerto Rican coach. More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 20, 2007.- Canada advanced to a semi final match against the Dominican Republic with an easy victory over Trinidad & Tobago in the first match of Thursday at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier Tournament. The North Americans won by score of 25-12, 25-13, 25-14.

Falin Schaeffer and Tasha Holnes led Canada with 10 and 9 points respectively. Schaeffer included 6 blocks and Holness added 5. Krystle Esdelle led Trinidad & Tobago with 10 points and Darlene Ramdin added 8.

“Trinidad & Tobago continues to improve every year and is a team with good potential,” said Naoki Miyashita, the coach of Canada. “I am excited about the match of tomorrow against Dominican Republic and we will give our best effort.”

“I am deeply satisfied with the performance of my team against a team as strong as Canada,” said Francisco Cruz, the coach of Trinidad & Tobago. “We scored much better today and the girls seemed to be more relaxed.” More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 19, 2007.- Cuba had to battle to defeat Puerto Rico 3-1 and win Pool A of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier. The score was 23-25, 25-15, 25-20, 27-25 and the Cubans out blocked the opponents 22-5.

Veteran Yumilka Ruiz led five Cuban players in double figures with 18 points. She was joined by Kenia Carcaces (16), Nancy Carrillo (15) and Yanelis Santos and Daimi Ramirez with 12 apiece. Puerto Rican Aury Cruz totalled 24 points while Ania Ruiz and Sarai Alvarez each contributed 11 tallies.

“For the last year and a half we have been close to beat the big teams of the area and still don’t learn how to do it,” said Juan Carlos Nunez, the Puerto Rican coach. “Today we lacked another hot hand to accompany Aury Cruz. At the end the Cuban blocking was over Cruz.” More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, México, December 19, 2007.- Dominican Republic won Pool B of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier by blanking Mexico 25-20, 25-15, 25-18.

Bethania de la Cruz was the best in the balanced Dominican offence with 16 points. Milagros Cabral had 10, Sidarka Nunez added 8 and Cindy Rondon and Cosiri Rodriguez provided 7 points apiece. Bibi Candelas led Mexico with 8.

“We have to improve our counter-attacks,” said Beato Miguel Cruz, the Dominican coach. “Our blocking was good and also the attack. More Spanish  P2 form

MONTERREY, México, December 18, 2007.- Nancy Carrillo, the most heralded Cuban player during the past year, is confident her side will be crowned here at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifier where one spot for Beijing is being disputed by six teams.

“We have prepared very well in order to secure the ticket to Beijing, the pressure must end here in Monterrey,” said Cuban Nancy Carrillo, the most valuable player in almost every tournament in which she has taken part this year.

The Cubans are the top favourites to take home the only berth to the Summer Games being disputed in the Olympic Qualifier played in the Nuevo Leon Gymnasium, in the light of the last encounters between the teams of the area where only United States is ahead of the islanders with three wins and two losses in 2007.  More Spanish

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 18, 2007.- Dominican Republic defeated Trinidad & Tobago in straight sets by score of 25-9, 25-12, 25-15 in just 53 minutes in the second match of Tuesday of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament.

Coach Beato Miguel Cruz used all his players and Bethania de la Cruz resulted in the best scorer with 10 tallies. Annerys Vargas, Cosiri Rodriguez and Prisilla Rivera each contributed 6 points. Krystle Esdelle led the Trinidadians with 8 points. “We tried to minimize our unforced errors in the first two sets and we achieved our goal,” said the Dominican coach.  More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 18, 2007.- Canada edged a resilient Puerto Rico in five sets to even its record at 1-1 in Pool A of the Norceca Women’s Qualification Tournament. The score was 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 18-25, 16-14.

Tasha Holness was the best Canadian with 18 points, including 8 blocks, while Stacey Gordon and Tammy Mahon added 17 and 14 respectively. Puerto Rican Sarai Alvarez led all the scorers with 27 points and siblings Aury and Eva Cruz added 16 and 11. “We played well during the first two sets but then Puerto Rico came back strong.  More Spanish  P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 17, 2007.- Host Mexico blanked Trinidad & Tobago 25-12, 25-14, 25-15, in the nightcap of the inaugural day at the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament.

Martha Revuelta and Bibi Candelas led Mexico with 12 and 11 points respectively and Krystle Esdelle had 12 for Trinidad & Tobago.

“I am very happy because we maintained the rhythm during most of the match,” said Macario Gonzalez, the Mexican coach. “Our mid-term goal is to insert us in the same group of Canada and Puerto Rico and then to beat those teams.” More Spanish P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 17, 2007.- Cuba defeated Canada 25-20, 25-23, 25-23 in the first match of the Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Rachel Sanchez led Cuba with 13 points, Yumilka Ruiz and Nancy Carrillo each added 12 and Rosir Calderon contributed 11 tallies. Tammy Mahon with 10 points led Canada while Tasha Holness and Shelley Chalmers had 6 apiece.

“We need to play better than today to qualify to Beijing, but I am confident we will,”  More Spanish

 P2 form

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 17 2007.- The Norceca Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament starts on Monday here with favourite and third world-ranked Cuba meeting Canada (24) and host Mexico (25) entertaining Trinidad & Tobago (70).

Six teams –Dominican Republic (14) and Puerto Rico (19) are the other two- will be battling for one single spot in the next Beijing Olympic Games. More Spanish

MONTERREY, Mexico, December 11, 2007.- Six women’s teams from NORCECA will be battling for one Olympic berth in the Pre-Olympic Continental  Tournament to be held in this Mexican city on December 17-23.

According to the Olympic qualification process the champion of this competition will join USA as competitors in the Beijing event. The Americans qualified to the Summer Games as third place finisher in the World Cup.

Cuba, currently third placed in the FIVB World Rankings as November 16, emerges as strong favourite to win the six-team tournament where Dominican Republic (14), Puerto Rico (19), Canada (24), More Spanish

SANTA ANA, El Salvador, December 10, 2007.- Guatemala was crowned as Youth Boy’s Central American Champions (U-19) by defeating Costa Rica in the match for the gold medal.

Héctor Juarez was elected as the Most Valuable Player and two other Guatemalans made the All-Star Team as Sergio Ralda and Hugo Cardona were best setter and libero respectively.

The team of Guatemala won the decisive match by score of 25-23, 25-23, 22-25, 25-13. In the match for the bronze medal, host El Salvador defeated Nicaragua 25-14, 25-21, 25-16. More Spanish

HAVANA, Cuba, December 7, 2007.- The two main Cuban women’s pairs are in a privileged position for landing spots in the Beijing Olympic Games.

The two-time Olympics Tamara Larrea and Dalixia Fernandez hope to be present in their third straight summer competition, now that they are in 13 place of the rankings for the capital of China and 20th for the world.

Meanwhile, the younger Milagros Crespo and Imara Estevez are in a similar situation with their 14 and 22nd positions respectively, but both pairs with real chances to improve in the Olympic rankings because each country can only be represented by two pairs per gender in the Beijing event.

For example, currently Brazil and United States have four pairs placed among the top 24 and Germany has three,  More Spanish

BRANDONS BEACH, Barbados.- Jamaicans Dany Wilson / Mark Lewis and the Barbados pair of Anthazia Mason / Sharon Bovell completed clean sweeps of the Men’s and Ladies competition of the Sizzlin Sand Caribbean SUNSPLASH events for 2007 when they won their respective divisions in the Barbados SUNSPLASH at Brandons Beach last month.

Mason / Bovell faced the Trinidadian pair of Nancy Joseph / Elki Philips in the ladies final and gave hometown fans lots to cheer about in a hard fought 21-13, 14-21, 15-10 victory over their Trinidadian rivals. More Spanish

PORT OF SPAIN, December 5, 2007.-  The Trinidad and Tobago Volleyball Teams is now the Caribbean Youth, Junior and Senior Champions.  The Junior Team won the title earlier this year in US Virgin Islands while the senior team won their title in Bahamas last year.  Now the youth team wrapped up the history making event to become the champion team in the first Caribbean Youth Champion which was held this weekend in Port of Spain Trinidad.

Team Captain Renele Forde led from the front as she was voted the “Most Valuable Player” and “Best Setter” after leading T&T Under-17 girls to the title in the Caribbean Youth Volleyball Championships hosted by the T&T Volleyball Federation on Sunday.

In the final played at the Jean Pierre Complex, Forde led the T&T girls to a come-from-behind win over US Virgin Islands 22-25, 25-21, 25-11, 25-21 in the tournament decider. More Spanish

TOKYO, Japan, December 3, 2007.- Puerto Rican Hector Soto was the best scorer of the Men’s World Cup won by Brazil with Russia and Bulgaria also securing berths in next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

Soto, who also was the top scorer in last year’s World Championship, totalled 243 points and was followed by Australian Paul Carroll with 200.

Brazilian Gilberto (Giba) Godoy was the Most Valuable Player as it was the case in the 2006 World Championship in Japan. Giba led Brazil with 127 points good only for the fourteenth position in the scoring department.  More Spanish

TOKYO, Japan, December 2, 2007.- Russia joined Brazil and Bulgaria in the Beijing Olympics by beating USA 3-2 in a World Cup decider at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Sunday. The Russians won 25-23, 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 15-8 to improve to 9-2 and leave USA stranded on 8-3 and out of the top three.

Semen Poltavsky led Russia with 23 points.  Gabe Gardner led USA with 21 points and Reid Priddy added 17 in the losing cause.

Bulgaria booked a place in the 2008 Olympic Games by sweeping Argentina 3-0. The tournament wild cards beat the South American vice champions 25-17, 25-22, 25-23 to finish the 12-team round-robin with a 9-2 record -- good enough to secure a podium finish and a place in Beijing.  Argentina, ranked ninth in the world, ended with a losing 5-6 record. More Spanish

TOKYO, Japan, December 1, 2007.- The United States stayed on course for Beijing with a comfortable 3-0 victory over Argentina in the first match of the day at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The NORCECA champions breezed past the South American vice champions 25-16, 25-19, 25-18 to improve their World Cup win-loss record to 8-2 ahead of their Sunday showdown with Russia.

Ranked fifth in the world, the Americans were too fast, strong and experienced for the ninth-ranked Argentines, who dropped to 5-5.  More Spanish

TOKYO, Japan, November 30, 2007.- The USA Men’s National Team continued to storm through the 2007 FIVB World Cup on Friday with a 25-18, 27-25, 25-19 victory over host Japan at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

The win improves Team USA’s record to 7-2 and keeps it in third place. However, Bulgaria, which was tied with the United States for third, kept the pressure on by defeating previously unbeaten Russia (25-21, 23-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-12) on Friday.

The top three World Cup finishers qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games. Reid Priddy led the U.S. scorers with 16 points on 12 kills and four blocks.

NORCECA vice champions Puerto Rico crushed Tunisia in straight sets at Komazawa Gymnasium in Tokyo on Friday.  More Spanish

OKAYAMA, Japan, November 27, 2007.- NORCECA champions United States cruised past Asian champions Australia 25-17, 25-12, 25-19 at the men’s World Cup on Tuesday.

Led by the impressive Reid Priddy and man of the match Lloy Ball at Momotaro Arena in Okayama, the U.S. were far too powerful for the Aussies and improved to 6-2, while Russell Borgeaud’s men dropped to 3-5.

Priddy led the Americans with 13 points and Gabriel Gardner and Ryan Millar added 11 and 10 respectively. Australian Paul Carroll, the leading scorer of the event, had 14 tallies.

In Fukuoka, Russia will head to Tokyo for the final phase of the World Cup with a perfect 8-0 win-loss record after blanking Puerto Rico. The European vice champions, who have won the World Cup five times as the former Soviet Union and as Russia, downed Puerto Rico 25-22, 25-21, 25-19. More Spanish

FUKUOKA, Japan, November 26, 2007.- Puerto Rico avenged their loss to Japan in the World Championship last year with a straight-sets sweep of the World Cup hosts in the third match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka on Monday night.

Puerto Rico won 25-23, 25-23, 25-21 to improve their win-loss record to 4-3, dropping Japan to 3-4 in the process with four matches to go.

At the 2006 World Championship, Japan beat Puerto Rico 3-1, winning the fourth set 36-34 on their seventh match point after Puerto Rico had missed five set points of their own.

Hector Soto led Puerto Rico with 21 points, Enrique Escalante added 13 and Victor Rivera contributed 11 tallies.

In Okayama, NORCECA champions United States stormed past Korea in straight sets to improve to 5-2. More Spanish

OKAYAMA, Japan, November 25, 2007 - NORCECA champions United States bounced back from losing the first set to beat African vice champions Tunisia at Momotaro Arena in Okayama on Sunday.

Led by some impressive play from man of the match Gabriel Gardner, Team USA weathered an early Tunisian storm to prevail 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-17 and improve to 4-2 in the men's World Cup, while the North Africans dropped to 1-5.

Gardner had 20 points, Reid Priddy added 17 and Ryan Miller and Riley Salmon had 11 points apiece.

In Fukuoka Argentina came back from two sets down to beat Puerto Rico 3-2 in the first match of the day at Marine Messe Fukuoka on Sunday.

Puerto Rico looked comfortable after winning the first two sets in style, but the South Americans regrouped to come back and take it on their first match point in the tiebreak. More Spanish

TOYAMA, Japan, November 23, 2007.- In their first-ever meeting, NORCECA vice champions Puerto Rico notched a straightforward 3-0 victory over European champions Spain in the men’s World Cup on Friday.

The Puerto Ricans won 25-18, 25-22, 25-18 at Toyama City General Gymnasium, guided by the Most Important Player Hector Soto, to improve to 3-2, while Spain dropped to 2-3.

Hector Soto was the best Puerto Rican with 21 points and Victor Rivera and Jose Rivera added 9 and 8 respectively. Guillermo Falasca led Spain with 12 points.

In another match in Toyama, NORCECA champions United States beat African champions Egypt in straight forward fashion. The USA Team won 25-22, 25-18, 25-19 to improve to 3-2.

Sean Rooney and Reid Priddy led the American attack with 18 and 12 points respectively. More Spanish