The women’s duos are grouped into two round-robin pools of five. The first-placed teams in the pools will progress directly to Sunday’s semifinals, while the second and the third-placed pairs will form two crossed match-ups for Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The presence of two former world champions highlights the line-up for the women’s competition. Melissa Humana-Paredes, who triumphed with the world title in 2019, and her current partner Brandie Wilkerson, who took silver at the 2022 World Championship, are both two-time Olympians and together they earned the silver medals at the Paris 2024 Games. Now, they are number seven in the women’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Ranking.
In Vega Baja, the Canadian duo will start off in Pool B, in the company of 2022 world champion and two-time Olympian Kelly Cheng, representing the United States alongside her current teammate Megan Kraft, a 2021 U19 world champion. The American pair is ranked sixth in the world, just above their main rivals in the pool – Melissa & Brandie.
Pool A is headlined by top-seeded Puerto Rican home favorites Allanis Navas & Keishlyann Sanchez, as well as Mexico’s Susana Torres & Abril Flores. Navas, a member of the world’s number 31 team with Maria Gonzalez, will hit the sand in Vega Baja with a new partner – international rookie Keishlyann Sanchez. Navas & Sanchez have played at only one international tournament together, taking silver at October’s NORCECA Beach Volleyball Tour stop in Punta Cana.
Torres & Flores have been a hit on this year’s NORCECA Tour, making the podium at each of their seven appearances on the continental circuit and collecting one gold, one silver and five bronze medals.
The other six women’s teams competing in Puerto Rico will represent Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala and the US Virgin Islands.
