Dominicans defeat Argentina to face Colombia in Lima 2019 title match

LIMA, Peru, Augusto 10, 2019. - Dominican Republic defeated Argentina  3-1 (25-18, 26-28, 25-13, 25-21) in semifinals to advance to the title match of the Lima 2019 Pan American Games against Colombia on Sunday at the Multisport Complex El Callao in Lima, Peru.

This is the second time that Dominican Republic reaches the gold medal match; they won in 2003 in Santo Domingo. Dominican Republic is set to face Colombia in a pool-play rematch where “The Queens of the Caribbean” finished on top. Argentina will aim to win their first ever medal in Pan American Games facing Brazil for third place, who they beat during the preliminary round.

Dominicans struggled in the second set as Argentina pushed harder to recover from a two set deficit (19-21) to an extended 28-26 finish.

Dominican Republic prevailed in every fundament of the game with a huge 63-47 advantage in attacks, 9-5 in blocks and 8-3 in service points. Dominicans committed 25 unforced errors and Argentina 21.

Brayelin Martinez carried her team with 26 points all on kills and Bethania De La Cruz scored 22 points on 21 kills and one block; captain Prisila Rivera tallied 13 points and middle blocker Jineiry Martinez 12 including 5 aces. Three Argentineans scored double-figures, opposite player Lucia Fresco (17), captain Julieta Lazcano (12) and outside hitter Elina Rodirguez (10).

Comments:

Marco Kwiek, Head coach of Dominican Republic: “I am glad to move forward into the final, the team worked well, our serves continue to be aggressive, our defense worked well too and that really helped us. I believe we could have done a better job in blocking, there are errors still. Now, we must think of Colombia”.

Brayelin Martínez, top scorer of Dominican Republic: “Both team battled strong to win the ticket to the final. On our side, we followed our coaches’ instructions and we executed our game plan to reach the victory”.

Elina Rodríguez, outside hitter of Argentina: “It was a difficult match, they played very well and we never got into our rhythm, which made the difference in the result”.