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MIAMI, Florida, June 30, 2009.- Bethania de la
Cruz tallied eight of her match-high 26 points
in the tie-breaker leading the Dominican
Republic to a thrilling victory over Olympic
champions Brazil by score of 25-23, 19-25,
18-25, 25-23, 15-13 Tuesday night at U.S.
Century Bank Arena in Florida International
University.
The win earned Dominican Republic a direct
ticket to the semi final round of the
competition, a qualifier to next year’s FIVB
World Grand Prix. The Brazilians will meet Peru
in the quarterfinals of Thursday.
Prisilla Rivera and Milagros Cabral contributed
15 and 12 points respectively to the victory and
Annerys Vargas and Lisvel Eve chipped in nine
and eight tallies.
Brazilians Thaisa Menezes and Sheila Castro each
produced 17 points and Welissa Gonzaga and Mari
Steinbrecher recorded 12 and 11 respectively.
“You have to feel excited after defeating an
Olympic champions like Brazil,” said Marcos
Kwiek. “It was a team victory with everyone
contributing. Bethania was great but the rest of
the team really supported her performance. It is
good to win but the biggest win is when you win
the title.”
“The Dominican team played well and deserved the
victory and that is important,” said Roberto
Guimaraes, the Brazilian coach. “We made errors
in key moments but that is always the story.
When you
lose you always make errors.”
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