USA’s Fa­lyn Fonoimoana and Corinne Quig­gle won a sec­ond straight women’s gold medal as the 2019 NORCE­CA Beach Vol­ley­ball Tour­na­ment’s tenth and fi­nal stop con­clud­ed here Sun­day.

In the fi­nal, Fonoimoana and Quig­gle bat­tled past Cubans Lid­i­an­nis Ro­driguez and Yanislei­dis Sanche 2-1 (27-25, 15-21, 15-13) in five min­utes short of an hour.

It was a see-saw match from the on­set with the USA rac­ing out to a 14-8 lead in the open­ing set on­ly for Cu­ba to draw lev­el at 14-14. In fact, the Cubans had the first chance at set point when they led 20-19 and then had two more at­tempts be­fore USA fi­nal­ly end­ed the set on their fourth at­tempt.

Cu­ba en­joyed a much bet­ter start to the sec­ond set and won it com­fort­ably in a slight driz­zle of rain as they threat­ened to mount a se­ri­ous turn-around by set­ting up an in­ter­est­ing de­cid­ing third set.

The third set was a repli­ca of the first with USA rac­ing out to a 5-1 ad­van­tage on­ly for the Cubans to pull with­in a point at 14-13 be­fore a ball in­to the net end­ed the con­test in the Amer­i­cans’ favour.

Speak­ing af­ter the win, which fol­lowed their tri­umph in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in the pre­vi­ous leg, Fonoimoana said it was very im­por­tant for them to build on their pre­vi­ous win.

“We are a new team and for us to con­tin­ue to grow it was a per­fect way to end the sea­son. I am very hap­py to be play­ing with her and it has been a re­al bless­ing,” Fonoimoana told Guardian Me­dia.

For Fonoimoana, it was her fifth medal of the tour this sea­son to add to two sil­ver medals won in Mex­i­co and Cay­man Is­lands as well as a bronze in Cu­ba, all with pre­vi­ous part­ner Nico­lette Mar­tin, while it was the third medal for Quig­gle, who al­so won a sil­ver this sea­son with Aman­da Dowdy in Mex­i­co.

In the semi­fi­nals, USA-A de­feat­ed Nicaraguans Va­le­ria Men­doza and Lo­lette Ro­driguez 2-0 (21-12, 21-8) and Cu­ba stopped Cu­ra­cao’s Angje­ny To­lenti­no and Le­an­dra Savoni­je 2-0 (21-17, 21-11).

Men­doza and Ro­driguez end­ed with the bronze medals af­ter beat­ing To­lenti­no and Savoni­je 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-11). De­spite the loss, Cu­ra­cao equalled the best ever show­ing of fourth by a Caribbean Zon­al Vol­ley­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (CA­ZO­VA) team, which was al­so ahieved in 2011 by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Nan­cy Joseph and El­ki Phillip.

Mean­while, USA-B’s Paul Lot­man and 17-year-old Miles Par­tain cap­tured the men’s ti­tle af­ter they came from be­hind to beat Nicaraguans Ruben Mo­ra and De­nis Jose Luis 16-21,21-15, 15-13 in 49 min­utes.

The elat­ed duo, play­ing for the first time on the tour, had ear­li­er de­feat­ed coun­try­men Chaim Schalk and Je­re­my Case­beer (USA-A) 21-15, 15-21, 15-12 while the Nicaraguans beat Cana­da-A’s Liam Kopp and Jake Mac Neil 21-16, 21-13.

Com­ment­ing on their win, Par­tain said, “I went in­to the tour­na­ment with­out any fear de­spite be­ing so young. I just came out to play and do my best in every match.”

Lot­man added, “The event was a very well put to­geth­er one and for me and my team-mate it was aa great ex­pe­ri­ence. For us to play to­geth­er was great and to get to the fi­nal first time and win was even bet­ter.”

In the bronze medal match, Schalk and Case­beer won 21-13, 21-14.

Re­sults

Women’s Di­vi­sion

Semi­fi­nals

USA-A bt NICARAGUA 21-12, 21-8

CU­BA bt CU­RA­CAO 21-17, 21-11

Fi­nal

USA d CUB 2-1 (27-25, 15-21, 15-13)

Men’s Di­vi­sion

Semi­fi­nals:

NICARAGUA bt CAN-A 21-16, 21-13

USA-B bt USA-A 21-15, 15-21, 15-12

Fi­nal

USA-B by NICARAGUA 16-21, 21-15, 15-13