Dominicans vanquish Kazakhstan for first victory

HAMAMATSU, Japan, October 1, 2018 - Prisilla Rivera and Yonkaira Pena scored 13 points each as the Dominican Republic defeated Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-19) in Pool D play at the FIVB Women's World Championship on Monday afternoon.

Captain Bethania De La Cruz added 11 points in the victory for the Dominicans, their first of the tournament. Both teams entered the match with 0-2 records and had not won a set.

De La Cruz had eight points for the Dominicans in the opening set. Lisvel Eve had 4 of the 11 blocks executed by the Dominicans as she chipped in with 10 points. Sana Anarkulova led Kazakhstan with eight points in the loss.

The winning team's coach relied on his experienced players in the match underlining on the important of the use of veteran players in a big event like this.

“We are aiming for a better performance from here on,” Coach Marcos Kwiek said. “It is important to use veteran players. They were good on receiving and attacking.

“We are very happy to get our first win of the tournament. We had some good points and bad points. We have some work to do on those.”

Captain De La Cruz added: We are happy with the victory. We passed and set well today. We still have some elements to improve but we had to win this game.”