Yonkaira and Marte stand out in Dominican victory

WALBRZYCH, Poland, June 14, 2018 – Everything was set up for Poland to take three home wins and to go on their longest winning streak for 44 years, but it was simply not to be.  The “Queens of the Caribbean” were on top form for the majority, marshalled brilliantly by Niverka Dharlenis Marte Frica to a 3-1 win (25-18, 16-25, 25-21, 25-20).  It was known from the start that a place at the Final 6 in China was already impossible for either team, so this match was purely for pride.

Yonkaira Paola Peña Isabel top scored with 19 points and is starting to really stand out for her team, closely followed by her counter-part Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez on 17.  But away from the points the entire team can be pleased with how they stuck together and delivered on their game plan tonight.

After the match captain Marte talked of the importance of the win for Dominican Republic as they close the competition on W3-L12.  Coach Marcos Kwiek commented that sets were hard to come by for his team earlier in the week but after two yesterday and the three today they leave the competition on a high.  

This defeat ends a run of six consecutive wins for Poland and is only the fifth time they have lost at home in their last 17 world level major tournament matches. When they look at the stats tomorrow they will see that everything was pretty much equal between the two teams, except the error count.

Malwina Smarzek was the leading scorer again (with 19 points), but struggled to find her way past a well formed block on this occasion. Natalia Medrzyk put in an impressive display in attack taking 15 points, while Martyna Grajber and their Libero Maria Stenzel did well in holding things together at the back of the court.

Only time will tell if anyone can catch Malwina Smarzek’s massive points total of 361 in the remaining matches, she is currently over 100 clear the rest of the field.

Dominican Republic are the higher ranked team, but based on what we have seen through the round robin phase this result may surprise some.  And with that the weekend in Poland came to a close, along with the 2018 Volleyball Nations League for these two teams.