{"id":144508,"date":"2026-08-21T22:22:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/queens-of-the-caribbean-begin-defense-of-the-norceca-title-against-costa-rica-6\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T22:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:22:33","slug":"queens-of-the-caribbean-begin-defense-of-the-norceca-title-against-costa-rica-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/national\/queens-of-the-caribbean-begin-defense-of-the-norceca-title-against-costa-rica-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens of the Caribbean begin defense of the NORCECA title against Costa Rica"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Queens of the Caribbean begin their journey to defend the title at the 2026 NORCECA<\/h2>\n\n<p>The Dominican women&#8217;s volleyball team, known worldwide as the Queens of the Caribbean, begins its participation this Friday in the 2026 NORCECA Women&#8217;s Continental Championship. With the Dominican capital as the host, the local team seeks to defend its crown and take a firm first step toward qualifying for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Dominican team&#8217;s debut is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. at the Prof. Ricardo Gioriber Arias Volleyball Palace, where they will face Costa Rica in the closing match of the opening day of the preliminary round.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tournament format and structure<\/h3>\n\n<p>The tournament is composed of eight of the most prominent national teams in the region, divided into two groups:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Group A:<\/strong> United States, Canada, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago.<\/li><li><strong>Group B:<\/strong> Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Costa Rica.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<p>The group stage will run until this Sunday. According to the regulations, the leaders of each group will earn a direct pass to the semifinals, while the teams that finish in second and third place will have to face each other in a quarterfinal round to keep their title aspirations alive.<\/p>\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More than a trophy: the road to world and Olympic qualification<\/h3>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>This tournament represents a fundamental pillar in our preparation. We are not only defending our position on the continent, but we are building the path toward the 2027 World Cup and the Olympic dream in Los Angeles 2028.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<p>In addition to continental glory, the championship grants three direct tickets to the 2027 FIVB Volleyball Women&#8217;s World Championship for those teams that have not yet secured their spot. Likewise, the tournament is vital for the Olympic cycle: the top four teams, excluding the United States due to its host status, will advance to the continental qualifier scheduled for late August, where a spot for Los Angeles 2028 will be decided.<\/p>\n\n<p>The event began with a resounding victory for the United States, who overcame Trinidad and Tobago with a score of 3-0 (25-6, 25-11, 25-4), setting the pace for a competition that promises to be intense from start to finish.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Queens of the Caribbean begin their journey to defend the title at the 2026 NORCECA The Dominican women&#8217;s volleyball team, known worldwide as the Queens of the Caribbean, begins its participation this Friday in the 2026 NORCECA Women&#8217;s Continental Championship. With the Dominican capital as the host, the local team seeks to defend its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12809],"tags":[8963,2934,1446,2333],"class_list":{"0":"post-144508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-national","8":"tag-norceca","9":"tag-queens-of-the-caribbean","10":"tag-santo-domingo","11":"tag-volleyball"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}