Dominican players celebrate after completing a dramatic comeback semifinal victory over USA on Saturday in Managua, Nicaragua

Managua, Nicaragua, August 26, 2012 – The Dominican Republic and Mexico are secured of berths in next year’s FIVB Women’s U20 World Championship to be held in Czech Republic as the finalists of the NORCECA U20 qualifier event.

The two sides will meet in Sunday’s match for the gold medal of the bi-annual Continental Championship while United States and Costa Rica will battle for the bronze medal and the third and last vacancy of NORCECA to the world event.

In Saturday’s action, the Dominican Republic completed a sensational comeback victory by outdueling the United States 3-2 (22-25, 13-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-10) while Mexico beat Costa Rica in straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-19).

Brayelin Martinez finished with a match-high 29 points and Pamela Soriano contributed 15 points to the Dominican victory. USA’s siblings Amber and Kadie Rolfzen had 18 and 16 points respectively.

“We wanted to do things well so badly that we pressured ourselves too much at the beginning,” the Dominican Soriano said. “We knew it was a difficult match and we never stopped fighting and following all the instructions from our coach.”

“Things weren’t right for me in the early going but with the support of my teammates I recovered and found back my game,” said Martinez, who have piled up 91 points in three matches.

Jocelyn Urias and Gabriela Zazueta each registered 9 points as the top scorers of Mexico’s victory.

“We are happy for the qualification to the world championship and just as we did yesterday against Cuba, we’ll try for the gold giving our maximum tomorrow,” Mexico’s captain Alejandra Isiordia said.

In the first match of the day, Guatemala defeated Trinidad & Tobago in straight sets (25-7, 25-16, 25-7) for the seventh position.