U.S. Virgin Islands
Teams of El Salvador, British Virgin Islands, St Vincent and Grenadines and hosts U.S. Virgin Islands will be the contenders for two spots available to the third round of tournaments to be held in 2014.
The third place finisher still will have a chance of making into the third round but only as the best ranked of the bronze medalists from all six groups of the second phase events scheduled this year.
The participating teams will arrive in St Croix on May 25 while the members of the NORCECA control committee will do it one day earlier.
Lucille Hobson, president of U.S. Virgin Islands Volleyball Federation, said the organizing committee has been working diligently in order to ensure a smooth organized competition while the volleyball community in the island is eager to support the competition as it happened last year.
Hosts U.S. Virgin Islands, winners of Group C last year also in St Croix, are the best ranked team of the four sides as they are currently positioned 11th in NORCECA rankings, followed by El Salvador (17th), British Virgin Islands (25th) and St Vincent (26th).
In last year’s first round, El Salvador and St Vincent finished second in Groups G and B respectively in tournaments held in Panama and Grenada. British Virgin Islands come to the competition as third place finisher at home in Group F.
Teams will compete under a round-robin format, playing two matches on Saturday. The preliminary phase concludes on Sunday morning session. Then, on Sunday evening the top two placed sides will play for the gold medal while the third and fourth placed teams will meet for the bronze.
The first second-round women’s tournament of the year took place in Curacao on May 11-12 with hosts Curacao and St Lucia booking spots in the third-round phase in 2014.
The competition schedule is as follows:
May 25
09:00 El Salvador v British Virgin Islands
11:00 U.S. Virgin Islands v St Vincent
18:00 St Vincent v British Virgin Islands
20:00 U.S. Virgin Islands v El Salvador
May 26
09:00 St Vincent v El Salvador
11:00 U.S. Virgin Islands v British Virgin Islands
18:00 Third v Fourth
20:00 First v Second
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