SEOUL, Korea, July 1, 2005.- Japan defeated Dominican Republic in straight sets (27-25, 25-22, 25-17) in the opening day of the Korean leg of the 2005 World Grand Prix. Earlier, Korea edged USA in five sets (25-23, 13-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-13).

The Dominicans were leading at the two technical time-outs of the first set behind the spikes of Prisilla Rivera and Dahiana Burgos, but at the end it was the Japan’s blocking the key factor.

After a tie at 10-all, the Japanese took control of the second set with blocks by Sachiko Sugiyama and Ai Otomo combined with a couple of spikes by Miyuki Takahashi for a four-point lead (14-10). At 18-22, the Dominicans came back with the attack of Burgos but fell short.

The third set was dominated by Japan with the Dominicans committing several reception mistakes.

“It was a very interesting match for the first two sets, but at the end the faster game of the Japanese was too tough for our blocking possibilities,” said Francisco Cruz, the Dominican coach. “I hope we can learn very much of today’s match for the future of our team.”

“I think that the errors of the third set were a mix of reception and attack,” said Cruz. “When the reception was good, the attack failed and also on the contrary.”

Takahashi led Japan with 15 points and Sugiyama and Otomo each had 11. For Dominican Republic, Cindy Rondon and Rivera had 14 apiece, Burgos cooperated with 12 and Annerys  Vargas scored 11.

Kim Se-Young had 16 points to lead Korea while Jung Dae-Young and Han Yoo-Mi added 15 and 10 respectively. For USA, Nancy Metcalf scored 38, Kristin Richards added 15 and Elizabeth Bachman and Elisha Thomas each had 11.