Dominican Republic prepare Olympics with high hopes
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, March 8, 2020 – The Dominican
Republic women’s national team is set to make its return to the
Olympics this summer in Tokyo and the Caribbeans already have a
plan for the event so that they return home with their best-ever
finish.
Heading into their third Olympics, the Dominicans have a
fifth-place finish in London 2012 as their best performance to
date. The result obtained by that team, which included players
who are still part of the current roster like outside hitters
Bethania de la Cruz and Prisilla Rivera, middle blocker Lisvel
Eve and star libero Brenda Castillo, is considered the starting
point for the team in 2020.
“Our first and main goal is to advance to the quarterfinals,”
head coach Marcos Kwiek said. “If we don’t make it, we’d
consider it a failure. To be at the Olympics is already a
massive accomplishment for us, but now we’re looking for the
next step and I like our chances of making it out of our pool.”
The Dominicans will be in Pool A in the Olympic tournament
alongside Serbia, Brazil, Kenya, Korea and hosts Japan and with
four of the six teams moving forward to the elimination round,
their strategy to advance is very clear.
With reigning world champions Serbia and Brazil, who are ranked
third in the world, most likely presenting tough challenges for
the ninth-placed Caribbean team, their focus is on winning their
other three pool matches so they don’t depend on a positive
result against the Europeans or the South Americans, who will be
their first two opponents in Tokyo.
In line with their strategy, the match-ups with Korea, on July
30, Kenya, on August 1, and Japan, on August 3, will have a
pivotal impact on the team’s aspirations in the Japanese capital
in a few months from now.
“In theory, our key matches should be Japan, Korea and Kenya,”
Kwiek said. “We believe Serbia and Brazil are probably at a
higher level as they’ve consistently finished among the best in
the major tournaments and if nothing surprising happens, they
should be number one and two in the pool. That means the four
other teams would compete for the remaining two spots, so the
matches against them will most likely decide our fate.”
If their results during the 2019 season are taken as an
indication of how far the Dominicans can go in Tokyo, however,
they could probably aim even higher. Over the course of the last
international season, the team, which secured its Olympic spot
by winning the NORCECA qualifier last January, defeated all of
its pool opponents in Tokyo, as well as other top teams in the
world like USA and Russia.
“Last year was a very positive one for us, but not only because
of the results,” the coach added. “It was very important that we
were solid and consistent throughout the entire season.
Obviously the results validate the work we’ve been doing here
but to reach that level of consistency means a lot. We want to
keep that form in 2020 so we can go to Tokyo with high hopes.” |