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MORELIA, Mexico, October 1, 2015.- Dominican Republic defeated
Canada 3-1 (18-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20) to reach the Gold Medal
match of the NORCECA Women’s Continental Championship being held
at Bicentenario Auditorium of Morelia, Michoacan.
Canada had an early 6-2 lead with good blocking and scoring on
Dominican Republic errors. Dominican Republic pushed hard with
serves to tie 8-8, and forcing longer rallies; Canada kept their
blocking effective leading again 14-10, giving more confidence
to their offense to finish 25-18.
Canada took the lead 5-3 again as Dominicans engaged in
consecutive errors. As the set developed, Dominican Republic
spiked hard keeping the score close 12-12; Canada reached the
second technical time out up 16-14. Dominicans finally jumped to
lead and closed 25-20 to tie the actions. In set three
Dominicans spiked hard against Canada’s blocking to score and
take the lead 9-7; this went on going but Canada was patient
until they tied 17-17. It took Dominican Republic two set points
to seal 25-23 with a touch of the ball after a spectacular
rally. The fourth set was slow, the score always close;
Dominicans’ blocking executed well for the lead and win 25-20.
Dominicans held a huge advantage in spikes 51-35, while Canada
had a 13-12 margin in blocks and 2-1 in aces. Dominicans scored
on 29 errors of Canada but gave away 38 points from their
errors.
Outside Hitter Brayelin Martinez scored 22 points, 18 on kills
and 4 on blocks to lead Dominican Republic into the final and
Outside Hitter Yonkaira Peña contributed with 13 points.
Canada’s top scorer was Opposite Tabitha Love with 14 points,
followed by Outside Hitter Dana Cranston with 11 points and
Middle Blocker Rebecca Pavan with 10 points.
Niverka Marte captain of Dominican Republic said “we had a slow
beginning and with confidence we went on to a better rhythm.
We’ve been performing well and we are glad to have reached the
gold medal match”.
Captain Brittney Page of Canada said “our blocking executed well
in the first set, after that we had ups and downs, we needed to
make better choices while spiking; we were too inconsistent”.
Brazilian Marcos Kwiek coach of Dominican Republic said “today
we were lucky, the middle blockers didn’t perform well, and we
had too many errors, the players are tired because it has been a
busy year. In the end we accomplished our second objective in
reaching the gold medal match”.
Coach Arnd Ludwig said “we started aggressive but our serves
failed in the second set making it easier for Dominicans to
score, they have more experience and more clever. I really had
no expectations about today’s outcome, we wanted to play well”.
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