.svg)
Canada Beats Dominican Republic for LA28 🌍
Kiera Van Ryk and Alexa Gray scored 22 points each in Santo Domingo, three days after Canada beat the United States for its first NORCECA continental title.
Canada beat the Dominican Republic 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-23, 25-14) at the Prof. Ricardo Gioriver Arias Volleyball Palace in Santo Domingo on Saturday and took NORCECA's only women's place at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.
The Canadians had swept Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 25-10) in the semifinal, and Cuba finished third. This is Canada's first Olympic appearance since Atlanta 1996, per Volleyball World, and only the fourth in the country's history.
The two before that were Montreal 1976 and Los Angeles 1984, on the same Volleyball World count. Canada's fourth Olympic tournament will therefore be played in the same city as its second.
Alexa Gray has been on this team since 2017, through a quad that ended without a ticket. Her 22 points on Saturday came as 18 kills and four aces. Canada's outside hitter spoke to Volleyball World afterwards.
I don't think I can put it into words how this feels. I started on the National Team in 2017, and this has been my life-long dream. We've just come so far since that time. We were so, so close last quad and we were heart-broken. I'm just so proud of how we came out today; it was a tough environment, but this team means everything to me and I'm just so happy to represent Canada. So overjoyed!
Canada's Top Two Outscored Martínez and Peña
Kiera Van Ryk finished with 22 points and took 20 of them from attack. Gray matched the total from the other pin. Between them they scored 44.
Brayelin Martínez led the Dominican Republic with 19 points on her own floor and Yonkaira Peña had 13. That is 32 from the home side's two best against 44 from Canada's.
Nyadholi Thokbuom added 11 points and seven of them came at the net. Three sets were settled by five points or more, two of those by double figures, and only the 25-23 third set was close.
Canada Won the Title and the Ticket
Canada had already won its first NORCECA Women's Continental Championship on 26 August by beating the United States, and the two results together are FIVB's historic NORCECA double.
Diario Libre and COLIMDO, neither a rights holder, both put that final at 3-2, with Anna Smrek on 20 points for Canada and Jordan Thompson on 15 for the United States.
The United States is already at LA28 as host, so the four highest finishers at the continental championship other than the Americans went into this qualifier in Santo Domingo. Puerto Rico and Cuba were the other two.
That makes Canada the only NORCECA team so far to have qualified for Los Angeles through continental competition, since the Americans it beat for the title three days earlier were already in as hosts.
Alexa Gray joined this team in 2017 and will get to an Olympic tournament eleven years later. The last Canadian woman to play in one did it in Atlanta, and none has since.
