Historic victory for Mexico over the United States in the NORCECA Women's Pan American Volleyball Women's Cup

Mexico reached its first final in the history of the NORCECA Women's Pan American Volleyball Cup, defeating the reigning three-time consecutive champion the United States 1-3 at the Ricardo -Gioriver- Arias Pavilion in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The Mexicans came from behind and after losing the first set 25-22, took the next sets with scores of 21-25, 23-25, and 19-25, in 2 hours and 3 minutes. They will face the Dominicans, four-time champions of the tournament, who defeated the Canadians 3-0, for the gold medal.

The highest place achieved by the Mexican women in the 19-year history of the event was fourth place in the inaugural tournament in 2002. It was also their first victory in history after nine defeats against the United States.

With this result, Mexico took revenge for its 3-1 loss to the United States (seven-time champion of the event) in its first match of the preliminary round. The stars of the match were Mexico's Samantha Bricio with 19 points, followed by Maria Rodriguez (17), Grecia Castro and Karina Flores (both with 14).

After the match, Rafael Petry, coach of Mexico, expressed that "The USA is a very prepared team, but we played very well as a team and that was an important factor. For now let's enjoy the victory and then we will go for the gold".

His U.S. colleague, Karch Kiraly, assured him "I have to give Mexico a big congratulations. They have been playing from less to more in this tournament. They were a better team than us and deserved the victory".

In the first match, Cuba defeated Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-20) to take fifth place. The six teams participating in the event started the process of qualifying for the Pan American Games Santiago de Chile 2023 and accumulating points for the FIVB ranking.