Noslen Diaz-Jorge Luis Alayo

Havana, June 8 (AN) --The Cuban duos Noslen Diaz-Jorge Luis Alayo and Amanda Armenteros-Yenifer Rivera advanced to the quarterfinals of the North, Central America and Caribbean Continental Tournament (Norceca) of Beach Volleyball, hosted until this Thursday at Los Corales beach in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

According to the website www.norceca.net of the event, a qualifier for the 2013 World Championship, scheduled for October in Tlaxcala, Mexico, the duos Diaz-Alayo and Amanda-Rivera advanced to the quarterfinals by finishing second in the A (m and f) keys of the group phase, both with balances of two wins and one setback.

Diaz and Alayo debuted with 2-0 successes against the Dominican Republic's Martinez-De Jesus (21-15 and 21-15) and Cayman Islands' Jesario-Watson (21-4 and 21-6), respectively, but then lost 0-2 (19-21 and 24-26) to the United States' Benesh-Partain.

For their part, Amanda and Rivera fell 0-2 against the U.S. pair Kolinske-Harnard (10-21 and 10-21) and then defeated Guatemala's Girón-Guerra (21-18 and 23-21) and El Salvador's Soler-Molina (21-18 and 21-19), in that order, 2-0.

The Cuban duos (m and f) will face in the quarterfinals the US Virgin Islands (Bucklin-Cronshaw) and Puerto Rico (Navas-Gonzalez), first undefeated of groups C, respectively.

This Thursday, the semifinal matches will also take place and the bronze and gold medals will be discussed, in that order.

The tournament awards four places per gender for the World Championship, with the presence of 24 duos from 13 countries: Canada, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands and St. Lucia.