For these Games, the women competed in an 8-team tournament. The teams were grouped into two pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each group will advance to a single elimination bracket.[2]
The official detailed schedule for the tournament was announced on February 5, 2015.[3]
Canada won the tournament for the first time, becoming the first host nation to win the gold medal since the United States in 1987.
Qualification
A total of eight women's teams qualified to compete at the games. The top three teams at the South American and Central American and Caribbean Championships will qualify for each respective tournament. The host nation (Canada) along with the United States automatically qualified a teams for the event.[4]
Pots one through three were based on each team's finish at their respective qualification tournament. Pot 1 consisted of the champions, pot 2 the runners-up and pot 3 contained the third placed teams. Pot 4 contained the host nation, Canada and the United States. Teams were placed into groups using a random draw (with each group receiving one team per pot). The draw was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 16, 2014.[5] Canada as host nation were able to select their group after the first three pots were drawn. This automatically placed the United States into the group Canada did not select.[6]
