Dominicans leave to Italy for the Grand Prix

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, July 27, 2014 – The Dominican Republic Women’s National Team departs on Sunday to Italy where they will continue their preparations for this year’s FIVB World Grand Prix, the premier annual female volleyball competition.

The Dominicans, currently ranked 8th in the world, will be taking part in the event for eleventh consecutive year dating back to 2004.

Their debut in 2014 –in the elite group of 12 teams- is scheduled to take place on August 1 in Pool C in the city of Sassari. They will face the teams of No. 1 ranked Brazil, No. 4 Italy and No. 5 China.

United States (No. 2), Japan (No. 3), Russia (No. 6) and Turkey (No. 11) will play in Pool A in Ankara, Turkey, during the first weekend of the preliminary phase while Serbia (No. 6), Germany (No. 9), Korea (No. 10) and Thailand (No. 12) will compete in Pool B in Hwaseong, Korea.

Brazilian Marcos Kwiek, technical director of the Dominican Republic, announced the squad of fourteen players to compete in the first official event of FIVB in 2014.

The team consists of Niverka Marte, Camil Dominguez and Rosalyn Angeles as setters, Annerys Vargas, Candida Arias and Marianne Fersola as middle blockers, Bethania De la Cruz, Yonkaira Peña and Prisilla Rivera as outside hitters, Gina Mambru and Brayelin Martinez as opposites, Brenda Castillo and Winifer Fernandez as liberos and Ana Yorkira Binet as defensive specialist.

“The World Grand Prix is a very demanding competition and you don’t get anything for free, you have to earn it,” Kwiek said.

He said his players have the experience in this kind of competition and the level of confidence is high.

Kwiek also commented that despite the importance of the Grand Prix he feels that most of the teams will use it to make the adjustments in preparation for the upcoming FIVB Women’s World Championship to take place in Italy in September.