In a night of brilliant play, Dominican senior women’s volleyball team captain Brayelin Martinez led the Reinas del Caribe to defeat Mexico 3-0 (25-15, 25,17 and 25-20) during the 2025 FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championships taking place in Thailand. The DR is ranked 10th and Mexico 26th by the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).
The competition runs from 22 August to 7 September across four host cities: Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai and Phuket. The 20th edition of the Women’s World Championship represents another historic first, as Southeast Asia welcomes a Volleyball World Championship for the first time in the sport’s history.
In the match on 24 August 2025, the DR shut out Mexico in Chiang Mai and topped the current pool standings on a perfect record of two straight-set victories. The DR had already defeated Colombia (3-0).
FIVB reported that it was Mexico’s 25 unforced errors (against 14 from the Dominican Republic) that helped their opponents the most during the match and even the game-winning point that came on a mistaken serve exemplified that. The Caribbean Queens also outplayed their rivals in attack with 42 successful swings against 32, and in blocking with six kill blocks against three.
Outside hitter and captain Brayelin Martinez authored three of those kill blocks, fired an ace and spiked at a 69% success rate to contribute a match-high 22 points to the Dominican win. Her cross-court teammate Yonkaira Pena added another 11 points, all in swings.
“We are very happy about qualifying. To make it to the second round was an important goal. Now we have to prepare for the next goal, which is to finish first in the pool,” Dominican Republic’s Brazilian head coach Marcos Kwiek told VBTV.
China and Colombia will play in the next Pool F match on Monday, starting at 19:30 local time (12:30 UTC). If the Asian team wins, it will book the pool’s second ticket to the eighthfinals.
On 27 August, the DR will play China that is ranked 5th in the world by FIVB.
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FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship
FIVB
FIVB
26 August 2025