Martinez and Rodriguez lead Dominican Victory over Italy

Tijuana, Mexico, October 8, 2013 – Brayelin Martinez and Jeoselyna Rodriguez each collected 22 points in leading the Dominican Republic to a convincing 3-1 (23-25, 25-23, 25-16, 25-12) victory over Italy at Baja California High Performance Center on Tuesday.

After a very close battle for the first two sets, the Dominicans played text-book volleyball the rest of the way displaying a festival of serves and blocks.

It was the third victory against one loss for the Dominican Republic good for second place in Pool A with 10 points.

Rodriguez, the leading server of the tournament with 14 aces coming into the match, added four more to her tally to go with two blocks.

Anna Nicoletti was the top scorer for Italy with 18 points followed by Laura Partenio and Cristina Chirichella with 11 apiece.

Kanami Tashiro, Captain of Japan: Argentina has good blocking and we had to find ways to penétrate it. With the fast game we were able to do it and finally got the points to close the sets. We need to improve our tactics for the next matches.Antonela Curatola, Captain of Argentina: They dominated the game for the most part of it. Their fast attack and great defence were the difference.

Shigetazu Okubo, Coach of Japan: I learned much from the great coaches of Argentina like (Julio) Velazco. I don’t know them but watched a lot of videos. I am a follower of the Argentinean school of volleyball. The girls of Argentina are going to improve as we will do also.

Guillermo Caceres, Coach of Argentina: Japan is a great team, they know how to make the points and play with a lot of patience. It is really enjoyable to watch Japan playing. We tried to force with our serves and because of that we missed a lot. In the third set, they made some errors and the score was close but they recovered their form and won it.