After failing to qualify the United States for the London Olympics at the NORCECA-hosted Continental Cup last week, two American women’s pairs avenged this setback by finishing 1-2 at another NORCECA-lead regional event on Sunday in the Dominican Republic.

The teams of Jenny Kropp/Whitney Pavlik (USA-2)  and Ashley Ivy/Lisa Rutledge (USA-1) advanced to the finals by defeating some of the same teams they fell to during the Olympics-qualifying tournament.  After storming through the pool play with only one loss, and then through the single elimination rounds, the two couples faced each other in the championship finals at the Boca Cica resort town.

Due to Ivy’s knee injury suffered early in first set, her team was forced to forfeit.  Kropp and Pavlik were awarded the gold medal with an officially-logged score of 21-5, 21-0.  With this setback, Ivy’s plans to compete with Rutledge on Tuesday in the upcoming FIVB tournament in Sanya, China may be hampered.

Among the four American men who also competed (three of whom unsuccessfully participated in Olympics qualifications), Stevo VanderWerp and Mark Van Zwieten (USA-2) placed fourth, while Billy Strickland and Aaron Wachtfogel (USA-1) settled for a fifth-place tie.  The Cuban partners, Karel Piña and Javier Jiménez, finished undefeated to land atop the podium. The next NORCECA regional tour stop will be held from May 13 -16 at the inland city of Chiapas, Mexico.