Germany wins against Dominican Republic

BANGKOK, Thailand, May 31, 2018 - Louisa Lippmann produced another dominant display to give Germany their second win in 24 hours at the women's FIVB Volleyball Nations League on Thursday with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 21-25, 25-12) victory against the Dominican Republic.

Lippmann followed up her 22-point haul against Thailand in Wednesday's five-set thriller with a game-high 29 points against the Dominican Republic as Germany made it back-to-back wins in Pool 11 after losing their previous six matches in the tournament.

Lippmann's latest big tally included 25 spikes from just 39 attempts, lifting her overall points total for the competition to 177, second only to Poland's Malwina Smarzek.

With Lippmann so controlling at the net, none of the other German players reached double figures although Jennifer Geerties and Lena Stigrot each finished with nine and the captain Maren Fromm got seven.

Brayelin Martinez once again led the way for the Dominican Republic. Fourth in the overall best scorers' list heading into the match, she collected 15 kills and a block to add another 16 points to her total.

The powerful serving Yonkaira Pena racked up eight points, as did Jineiry Martinez as the 'Queens of the Caribbean' dropped to 2-7 in the inaugural VNL.

Germany, who improved to 3-6, overturned a five-point deficit to win the first set.

The Dominican Republic dominated the early exchanges but the Europeans drew level at 20-20 then took the lead with a pin-point ace from Lippmann that landed in the corner of the back court.

Germany got to set point when Martinez was ruled to have touched the net after a winning block then they clinched the opener when Pena was unable to return a blistering serve from Marie Scholzel.

Germany dominated the second set from the outset, penetrating the Dominican Republic defence to open up a big lead that they never relinquished, sealing the set when Lippmann and Lisa Grunding combined for a double block.

The Dominican Republic rebounded strongly to win the third set, twice opening up six-point leads, before Martinez followed up a neat dink with an unreturnable spike to force a fourth set after one of Pena's serve was clocked at over 100 kilometres per hour.

But the fourth set was all one-way traffic for Germany, who wrapped up the win on a thunderous spike from Geerties.

The Dominican Republic travels to the Netherlands next week to join the Dutch, Serbia and Italy in Pool 13 while Germany moves to Bydgoszcz to play Pool 16 hosts Poland as well as Argentina and Belgium.