World No. 1 Brazil shut out the Dominican Republic to Top Pool H

MILANO, Italy, October 10, 2014 - World No. 1 Brazil shut out the Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-17) to top Pool H in Round III of the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championships Italy 2014.

Joining Brazil in qualifying from Pool H are China, thanks to their five-set victory over the Dominican Republic on Thursday. 

In Saturday's semifinals Brazil, now undefeated in 11 matches at Italy 2014, will face the second-ranked team of Pool G, to be determined at the Italy v Russia.

The Dominican Republic rank fifth overall at these World Championships - a huge leap from their previous best of 11th in 1998.

Brazil’s best scorers were Sheila and captain Fabiana with 13 and 12 points, while for the Dominican Republic Rivera and captain De La Cruz contributed 8 kills each. 

These teams met for the third time at the World Championship. Brazil beat Dominican Republic in all their three encounters.

Brazil are still unbeaten at the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014 with 11 victories.

Dominican Republic have played their 50th match at the World Championship, the 18th team to reach this milestone.

Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek: It was a very difficult match. We tried our best and tried to adjust during the second set but we did not succeed. Brazil played well and kept the pressure on us all the time. It was not our best match but we did our best within the circumstances. I have a very young team, just two players who are 29 and 32. The rest are young. There is a group of that team that were runners up in the U20 and U23 competition. In the future it will be bright and we will continue working to the best of our ability.

Dominican Republic captain Bethania De La Cruz De Pena: We knew the match was going to be difficult. Both teams know each other very well. Things did not come out the way they were supposed to. Brazil came out very strong. We did the best we could and it has been a good tournament for Dominican Republic. The Domincan team worked very well and hard before the World Championship. We go away very happy with our accomplishment in this World Championship. I fell very good with myself. I knew what we were going to play against, the best teams in the world. I'm satisfied personally.