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SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, December 23,
2021- Bethania De la Cruz has an exclusive place
in world volleyball.
The stellar Dominican attacker is not only the
only player in the history of the pastime
invented by William Morgan with three games of
more than 50 points, but last week she added
another link that separates her from the rest of
the athletes of the discipline of the ball and
the high net.
By taking part in the FIVB Club World
Championship in Ankara, Turkey, Bethania set an
unprecedented milestone by representing three
continents in different editions of the annual
classic.
She did it for America when she debuted with
Club Mirador from the Dominican Republic in
2011, the second of three tournaments in a row
held in Doha, Qatar.
Then she was present in Europe with Eczacibaci
VitrA Istanbul of Turkey in 2015 and with Dynamo
Moscow in 2017 when the event took place in the
cities of Zurich, Switzerland, and Kobe, Japan,
respectively, and has just played with Altay
Spor Kulubu from Kazakhstan representing Asia.
De la Cruz contributed to winning the gold medal
in 2015 where she teamed up at Eczacibaci VitrA
with American Jordan Larson the Most Valuable
Player.
During her long career, the Dominican has
reinforced the Vaqueras de Bayamón and Criollas
de Caguas teams in Puerto Rico, Toray Arrows and
Denso Airybees in Japan, GS Caltex in Korea,
Eczacibaci VitrA Istanbul in Turkey, Dynamo
Moscow and Dynamo Kazan in Russia, Savino Del
Bene Scandicci in Italy, Jakarta Pertamina
Energi in Indonesia and Altay in Kazjistan.
The veteran attacker owns the most memorable
performance by a Dominican player at an FIVB
event when in 2011 she set the record for most
points in a World Cup game in Okayama, Japan to
score 42 in a win over Germany on 12th of
November.
In that edition of the World Cup, Bethania was
No. 1 in points scored with 228 in 11 games for
an average of 20.72 per game and topped the
winning services department with 25.
In those two categories Bethania was seconded by
Argentinean-Italian Carolina Costagrande who had
186 points and the Japanese Nana Iwasaka with
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