The Dominican Republic women’s volleyball team (ranked 9th by FIVB) won its first match during the FIVB Women’s World Championship taking place in Hamamatsu, Japan. The Dominican team had lost its matches to Serbia (ranked 3rd) and Brazil (ranked 4th), but defeated Kazakhstan (ranked 40th) 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-19). The Dominican Republic is playing in Pool D. Coach Marcos Kwiek said he relied on his experienced players to win the match.
The Dominican Republic is competing against 24 teams in the event that started on 29 September and continues through 20 October 2018. The Dominican team has pending to play Puerto Rico (ranked 13th) and Kenya (ranked 33rd).
FIVB shared the coaches and player comments:
Marcos Kwiek, coach DR: We are very happy to get our first win of the tournament. We had some good points, but we need to address our mistakes that led to easy points for the opposition. The goal is to improve our performance from here one. It is important to use veteran players in a big event like this. They were good on receiving and attacking.
Shapran Vyacheslav, coach Kazakhstan: They are a good team. I have watched them play many times. They are physical and tall and better than us. I like their style. They have good technique in service, attack and blocking, which is quite beyond us. This is the reason for the result.
Dominican Republic captain Bethania De La Cruz: We are happy with the victory. We passed and set well today. We still have some elements to improve. We had to win this game.
Kazakhstan captain Radmila Beresneva: They played stable through the match and did a good job. Their reserve players also played well.
Dominican team members are: Brenda Castillo, Larysmer Martinez, Prisilla Rivera Brens, Bethania de la Cruz, Yonkaira Peña, Isabel and Brayelin Martinez, Gina Mambru, Gaila González, Annerys Valdez, Candida Arias Perez, Lisvel Eve Mejia, Jineiry Martínez, Niverka Marte and Camil Dominguez.
The best the Dominican Republic senior team has done in the world championship is 5th place.
Read more:
Japan World Volleyball Championship
2 October 2018
