China wins sensational match against Dominican Republic

MILANO, Italy, October 9, 2014 – The second day of the third round at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship Italy 2014 at Mediolanum Forum offered the public a great show with China and Dominican Republic fighting in a thrilling five-setter that China eventually won 3-2 (22-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-13).

The Dominicans need a victory over World No. 1 Brazil on Friday to stay alive and get a ticket to the semifinal round.

It was the fourth victory of China without losses against Dominican Republic in the history of the world championships, including two this year both in five sets. The Dominicans played their seventh five-setter in this year tournament and have completed 46 sets for the whole competition.

Dominican Bethania De la Cruz was the best scorer of the match with 39 points while Ting Zhu contributed 25 for China. China had 16 block points to 10 by the defeated side.

Junjing Yang and Ruoqi Hui each contributed 13 points in the victory. Prisilla Rivera and Gina Mambru had 22 and 13, respectively, for the Dominican Republic while Annerys Vargas added 8, including six blocks, in the loss.

China coach Lang Ping: It was very tough for us. The Dominican Republic played very well as they did during the whole tournament. At the beginning we couldn’t block them but eventually we found a way to stop them.

Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek: First of all I want to congratulate China. Both teams played with almost no mistakes during five sets. We offered the public a great match. Tomorrow we have to play set by set and give again the best we can.