Brayelin and Bethania carry Dominicans to crucial match

SANTO DOMINGO; Dominican Republic, January 11, 2020 – Brayelin Martínez and Bethania De la Cruz fired 26 and 24 points, respectively, carrying the Dominican Republic to a decisive match against Puerto Rico for the NORCECA Women’s Ticket to Tokyo Olympic Games.

The outstanding performance by the Dominican offensive duo sent the Dominican Republic past Canada 3-1 (25-13, 21-25, 25-19, 25-14) in the second day of the NORCECA Women’s Confederation qualifier to the Summer Games in the Japanese capital.

Both teams scored with 12 blocks and the winners held the edge in service aces 5-3. The winners led in attacks 59-38 and made 19 errors to 20 by the losers.

Alexa Gray was the best Canadian with 17 points, followed by Kiera Van Ryk with 12 and Jennifer Cross with 10.

Prisilla Rivera, captain of Dominican Republic: Our team played more united. The girls battled more and that was evident on the court. Now we are focused on tomorrow’s match.

Kyla Richey, captain of Canada: It’s simple. Dominican played a great game. There were situations we couldn’t overcome.

Marcos Kwiek, coach of Dominican Republic: “We are very glad with the victory. The Canadian team has raised its level. Today we made some mistakes and for moments we lowered our intensity, mainly in the services. We neet to keep the concentration and not allow to be carried by the emotions in our match against Puerto Rico.

Thomas Black, coach of Canada: We failed on our reception and when you don’t receive well you can’t attack well.