Big spikes by Bethania carry Dominican Republic

LIMA, Peru, June 18, 2017 – Dominican Republic defeated Chile in straight sets 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-9) in Pool B of the XVI Women’s Volleyball Pan American Cup by Movistar at Eduardo Dibos Coliseum on Sunday.

It was the second victory in as many days in the competition for the defending champions while Chile suffered their second loss.

Star player Bethania De la Cruz was the scoring leader for the winners with 22 points, followed by Yonkaira Peña and Annerys Vargas with 14 and 11, respectively. Gina Mambru added 8 in the victory.

Eduardo Guillaume, Coach of Chile: “I am leaving with a positive feeling because we forced the Dominican team to put a good effort going to players like Bethania. So it is a positive sensation.”

Marcos Kwiek, Coach of Dominican Republic: “We are teams going through different process. They are a very young team in the beginnings while we have some young players also but with a lot of international exposure. It was the first match of Bethania after the season in Russia and the team is getting into rhythm.”

Bethania De la Cruz, Captain of Dominican Republic: We didn’t know too much about Chile and they showed good ball handling. In the second set we made too many errors but then recovered and played a good third and the victory in three sets.”

Catalina Melo, Captain of Chile: “It was a very tough match against a very experienced team. The good things is that we didn’t quit and played hard until the end.”