The Bahamas are chasing the World Championship dream
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, November 14, 2016 – The Bahamas and Bonaire were due to meet in the final round of matches in Group C of the CAZOVA (Caribbean Zonal Volleyball Association) qualifying series for the 2018 FIVB Women’s World Volleyball Championship with progress to the next qualifying round on the line.
The pair had both beaten the hosts and lost to Guadeloupe and whoever won was due to join Guadeloupe in Jamaica in July for the second round of qualifying.
The first round began with Group A action in St. Croix last August, when Barbados, ranked third in CAZOVA and the highest of 12 teams in the three groups, failed to advance to the next round, as ninth-ranked players from Curacao won all three matches to qualify along with the eighth-ranked hosts United States Virgin Islands.
The action in the third and final group, Group B, will take place on November 26 and 27 in Aruba, with teams from Suriname, Haiti, Aruba and Martinique will vie for the two available spots in the second round.
Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, ranked first and second, respectively, have received byes into the second round and will each host half of the six qualifiers in July.
The two group winners, along with the final two teams standing in the Eastern Caribbean Volleyball Association Zone and the Central American Zone, will then compete alongside top-ranked NORCECA teams Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
The top six finishers from this competition will qualify for the 2018 World Championship in Japan, which is due to take place from September 30 – October 21.
The United States received an automatic berth after winning the previous edition in 2014 in Italy.
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