COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Sept. 10, 2018) – The NORCECA Beach Tour returns this fall with events in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (Sept. 28-30), Boca Chica, Dominican Republic (Oct. 5-7), Ocho Rios, Jamaica (Nov. 2-4) and Martinique (TBD).
The event in Boca Chica is the continental championship, worth 300 points toward qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Women’s teams competing in Boca Chica are Lauren Fendrick/Sarah Sponcil and Emily Stockman/Kelley Larsen. Men’s teams are Ryan Doherty/Billy Allen and Eric Zaun/Avery Drost.
Women’s teams competing in Punta Cana are Katie Spieler/Karissa Cook and Falyn Fanoimoana/Molly Turner. Men’s teams competing are Zaun/Drost and Branden Clemens/Ben Vaught.
The USAV Beach Department held NORCECA qualifying tournaments for these events.
To view full results from the qualifier for Punta Cana, Ocho Rios and Martinique, click here.
OLYMPIC QUALIFYING
The Olympic qualification period for beach volleyball at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo began Sept. 1 and runs through June 15, 2020. Twenty-four teams per gender can qualify for the Olympic Games.
Teams earn Olympic ranking points by competing at FIVB World Tour events. Teams must play a minimum of 12 events during that period. FIVB four- and five-star events offer the most Olympic ranking points.
Teams that finish in the top 15 qualify for the Olympic Games, unless they have qualified another way (see below), in which case the next highest team qualifies. Countries are limited to a maximum of two teams per gender, so if a country has three teams in the top 15, only the top two will qualify.
As the host country, Japan automatically qualifies one women’s team and one men’s team.
The winners of the 2019 FIVB World Championships (June 28-July 7) also qualify automatically.
Teams can also qualify by winning the Continental Cup, which is a zonal competition (the U.S. zone is called NORCECA, standing for North America, Central America and the Caribbean).
The final chance to qualify will be the FIVB World Continental Cup, in which the second- and third-place teams at all five zonal qualifiers will compete and the winners will qualify for the Olympic Games.
ZHONGWEI OPEN
The U.S. beach teams of Kelly Reeves/Brittany Howard, Jessica Gaffney/Corinne Quiggle and Kendra VanZwieten/Lara Dykstra are scheduled to compete Sept. 14-16 in the FIVB World Tour two-star event in Zhongwei, China.
KING OF THE COURT
The King of the Court Crown Series 2018 opened last weekend with men’s stops in Utrecht, Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium.
Jake Gibb/Taylor Crabb and Casey Patterson/Stafford Slick competed for the United States.
Gibb/Crabb finished fifth in Utrecht and Antwerp. Patterson/Slick tied for 12th in Utrecht and made it to the semifinals in Antwerp.
The series moves on to Honolulu (Sept. 14-16) where female competitors will join the fun. The King of the Court event will open the weekend on Sept. 14 followed by a two-day AVP invitational tournament.
U.S. women’s teams scheduled to compete in Hawaii are April Ross/Alix Klineman, Summer Ross/Sara Hughes, Kelly Claes/Brittany Hochevar, Sara Sponcil/Terese Cannon, Emily Day/Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen/Emily Stockman.
U.S. men’s teams schedule to compete are Gibb/Ta. Crabb, Phil Dalhausser/Nick Lucena, Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb, Sean Rosenthal/Chase Budinger, Patterson/Slick and Maddison McKibbin/Riley McKibbin.