Wisconsin was missing its youngest player and most recent addition to the roster due to a Noreca Volleyball Competition representing her country of Puerto Rico. The competition, called Santo Domingo 2026, is part of the Olympic qualifying and Central American and Caribbean Games. Champion was one of the stars of the entire tournament, as she continues to show how high her ceiling is and what she can bring to the Badgers.
Puerto Rico finished third out of eight countries, and the bronze medal was primarily due to Decelise Champion's strong attack. She was one of the leading point scorers of the entire tournament and led Puerto Rico in kills each match. In the bronze medal game, Champion had 15 points. She was able to get eight points against the eventual champions, the Dominican Republic.
Puerto Rico claims the bronze medal at @santodomingo2026!
— NorcecaInfo (@Norceca_Info) August 7, 2026
Puerto Rico defeated Cuba in straight sets to secure their third 🥉 in the history of the Games.
PUR 🇵🇷 3-0 🇨🇺 CUB (26-24, 25-23, 25-18)
Top Scorers:
Decelise Champion (17) 🇵🇷 - 15 pts
Greisy Fine (20) 🇨🇺 - 10 pts pic.twitter.com/hQBiXmL87Y
Decelise Champion has a silver and bronze medal already this summer for Puerto Rico
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This is not to mention that she won the silver medal with Puerto Rico back in June for the NORCECA Women’s Final Four. She was the top scorer for the entire tournament, listed as part of the "Dream Team" for the tournament, which is basically like "All-Tournament Honors." This is all part of the senior team for Puerto Rico. She's not on the U17 or some other tournament team; she's playing at the top level for her country.
Sheffield said he doesn't expect her to return until September and that she needs to fulfill her responsibilities to her national team first. "This summer she will be competing for Puerto Rico in an Olympic Qualifier event and will be joining us at the beginning of September after that tournament is completed."
There is one more tournament that is the next step to qualifying for the Olympics, happening at the end of this week and into next week. The NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship could go as long as August 25, which is the championship game. The first game for Puerto Rico is August 21 against Cuba.
Champion is proving to be an elite international star, one that is gaining a ton of reps before the Badger volleyball season. There's some good news and bad news with this. The good news is she's getting high-level experience in an environment that is teaching her to play without fear. She's scoring at will, and she's proving to be one of the best players in the world at only 16 years old (turning 17 in September).
The bad news is that she's not getting these reps with her teammates and building the rapport that will be needed to endure a long volleyball season. This year may be a phase-in year, where Sheffield finds spots to use her and let her settle into the team during the practices. Though her ceiling is incredible and her skills are already touching the ceiling, it's hard to imagine she won't have some sort of role, even as a true freshman starting the season late.
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