The first two tournament dates for the NORCECA Continental Tour have been announced. La Paz, Mexico will host the first event April 6-10, while the Cayman Islands mark the next stop, April 20-24.
As the first step towards the tournament field, the United States hosted a playoff event, March 22 in Hermosa Beach. The top finishers on both the men’s and women’s side will receive an automatic bid to the event of their choice.
The United States has a history of success on the NORCECA Tour, bagging 32 medals, including 11 gold in 2016.
Men
Casey Patterson and Theo Brunner won the event on the men’s side. Patterson was playing with a new partner at the event, but the top seeded pair went 3-0 on the day en route to the title. Patterson and longtime partner Jake Gibb rank sixth in the FIVB World Rankings, were the 2013 USAV and AVP Team of the Year and finished fifth at the 2016 AVP Championships. Meanwhile, Theo Brunner played with Todd Rogers from 2013-2016, but competed with Billy Allen at the AVP Championships, finishing sixth.
John Mesko and Skylar Del Sol were second at the playoffs, falling to Patterson/Brunner 21-12, 21-17 in the final. Stafford Slick joined up with indoor Olympian Reid Priddy for third place. The pair went 3-1 on the tournament, but lost in the semifinal to Mesko/Del Sol. Priddy was a gold medalist in Beijing in 2008 and won a bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. He last played on the AVP Tour in 2006. Slick finished seventh at the AVP Championships with Ty Tramblie.
Women
Betsi Flint and Kelley Larsen won the women’s title. The pair ranks 62nd in the latest world rankings and was the runner-up at the AVP Tour Championships in Chicago. In 2015, the duo won the AVP tournament in Cincinnati to become the youngest team ever to win an AVP event.
Flint and Larsen were the fourth seed entering the playoffs, but went 3-0, knocking off second-seeded Brittany Hochevar and Emily Day 21-12, 21-17 in the final.
Lara Dykstra and Jace Pardon defeated Amanda Dowdy and Whitney Pavlik 18-21, 21-11, 15-9 for third place.
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