Dominicans make history with Final Six ticket

BARI, Italy, October 4, 2014 – The Dominican Republic qualified to the third round of the 2014 FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Championship despite losing to China 3-2 in a clash between two previously unbeaten teams at Palaflorio Saturday afternoon.

With the hard fought 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 20-25, 15-10 victory, the Chinese women snapped a four-match full-set winning streak of Dominican Republic, who suffered their first defeat in eight matches. The Dominicans sealed their ticket to the next phase of the competition when Italy blanked Japan 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-19).

Having secured their berth in the third phase, China now led second round pool E with 16 points (6-0) followed by Italy with (16, 5-1) while Dominican Republic are third with 12 points (5-1).

Italy and China play on Sunday in a decisive match for the top place in Pool E, while the Dominican Republic take on Japan (8, 2-4) in a contest to complete the schedule.

Dominican Bethania De la Cruz registered 37 points, including three aces and two blocks, followed by Prisilla Rivera with 20 and Gina Mambru with 10 points. Ting Zhu finished with 23 for China and Ruoqi Hui added 14 in the victory.

Before this match, China had dropped only two sets against Japan in the World Championship.

Also on Saturday, the already qualified United States swept Serbia 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-22) with Kelly Murphy and Kelsey Robinson leading the way with 14 and 12 points, respectively.

The Americans have now 18 points to go with a 6-0 win-loss record, followed by Brazil (17, 6-0) who beat Russia 3-1 (25-17, 25-27, 25-19, 27-25) to clinch a berth to the third round.

USA and Brazil clash on Sunday to decide the winner of Pool F while Serbia (11, 4-2) meets Russia (10, 3-3) for the last spot available in the Final Six.