Dominicans stun Brazil at home with historic win

BRASILIA, Brazil, May 22, 2019 – The Dominican Republic continues producing historic feats as the team from the Caribbean defeated host Brazil for the first in a major official competition of FIVB after coming up with empty hands in 20 previous attempts times.

It was the second victory in as many outings for the Dominican side that one day earlier had won against Russia for the first time after 14 failures.

Bethania de la Cruz and Brayelin Martinez scored 20 and 18 points, respectively, as the top guns of the Dominican side in the 3-1 (25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 28-26) victory. Jineiry Martinez added 13 in the victory.

Gabriela Guimaraes had a match-high 29 points for Brazil and Ana Paula Bedani added 12 in the losing effort.

The Dominicans held the advantage in blocks (12-6), aces (5-4) and attacks (64-59). The winners committed 24 unforced errors to 19 by the losers.

Prisilla Rivera, Dominican Republic's Captain - "Playing away is always hard, we knew that this would be a tough match. Our goal was to win by any score. All players had an important role on court.

We are happy because Brazil has a strong team, even missing some of the most experienced players"Marcos Kwiek, Dominican Republic's head coach - "Brazil has an amazing team, and it is always difficult to play with them. We are getting our pace on this competition, getting points on the scoreboard and winning key matches, that’s what is more important to us."