REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy, June 26, 2005.- Germany needed five sets to obtain its first victory in the 2005 World Grand Prix by defeating Dominican Republic by score of 25-12, 25-27, 21-25, 25-9, 15-11.

Christiane Furst led four Germans in double figures with 17 points and Cornelia Dumler, Christin Guhr and Birgit Thumm added 15, 13 and 11 respectively. Cosiris Rodriguez led the Dominicans with 18 points and Yudelkis Bautista and Prisilla Rivera added 12 and 9.

Germany converted 21 blocks against only 3 by the Dominican Republic.

The blocking and the serves carried out Germany in the one-sided first set with Dumler and Kathy Radzuweit leading the way.

The Dominicans led by one point in both technical time-outs but had to come from behind (18-22) guided by the attacks of Rodriguez and Rivera before closing out with aces from Cindy Rondon and Karla Echenique.

Rodriguez scored half of her points in the third set backed by the solid setting of Juana Gonzalez.

In the fourth and fifth set was once again the blocking of the Germans the key element for their triumph.

“I think my team was a little bit tired and it showed in the second and third sets,” said Lee Hee Wan, the coach of Germany. “My team did not have good defence because lack of depth.”

“Germany played essentially good defence,” said Francisco Cruz, the Dominican coach. “Not only their blocking was good but also their serves and overall defence around the court.”

Meanwhile, Olympic champion China beat the United States 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-15)  to win the Ningbo leg with three straight wins.

Nancy Metcalf was the top American scorer with 15 points. USA finished third at the four-team tournament with one win against two losses. The Netherlands was second and Thailand finished fourth.