December 20 2003
Volleyball Canada

Team Canada Women’s Olympic Dreams Fall Short

The "Road to Athens" for the National Women’s Volleyball Team has unfortunately fallen short of it’s destination, as the Canadian’s lost in this evening’s semi-final match to the Dominican Republic, at the NORCECA Zone Olympic Qualifying Tournament. Tonight in front of a patriotic packed house, the host team Dominican Republic defeated Canada in straight sets with scores of 25-23, 25-21, & 25-20. The loss officially eliminated the Canadian Women’s Olympic hopes, where the only chance they had to qualify for next years Athens Olympics was by winning the tournament.

Seventeen year old Sarah Pavan (Kitchener, ON led Team Canada with 13 points, while Amy Tutt (West Vancouver, BC) added 12, and Barb Bellini (White Rock, BC) scored 11.

"This is a very disappointing time for us right now," stated Team Canada Head Coach Lorne Sawula. "Despite the straight set loss it was a very tight game and our athletes played very well. It was a good match, where the Dominican’s earned the victory by being the better Team tonight. We made a few mistakes that came back to cost us, while the Dominican’s capitalized on a few good kills at the right moments."

"It will be tough now, but we will try and regroup for tomorrow to end off the season with a win," added Sawula.

In the earlier semi-final match 6th ranked Cuba defeated 17th ranked Puerto Rico in four sets to set up a Cuba versus Dominican championship match tomorrow evening. Canada will face Puerto Rico for third place at 3:00pm CST.

The 2003 NORCECA Olympic Qualifier was the Canadian Women’s only chance at qualifying for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Only the winning team gains a berth into next years Olympics, where the next highest world ranked NORCECA Team that hasn’t qualified will have a second opportunity to also compete in the South American Olympic Qualifying tournament in January.

Competing Teams at the tournament include Cuba (6th), Dominican Republic (14th), Puerto Rico (17th), Canada (20th) and Mexico (35th).

reprinted with permission