Rome, September 27, Italy, 2014 - Dominican Republic claimed their fourth victory in the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship Italy 2014 Pool A first round, defeating Argentina for 3-1 (25-13, 25-20, 19-25, 25-18).
Key facts- Dominican Republic booked a visit to the second round, while Argentina will not be able advance to the second round.- Dominican Republic won their fourth match in a World Championship for the first time- Including their last match at the 2010 World Championship, Dominican Republic are now on a five-match winning streak (team record).- Annerys Vargas closed the first three sets with 100% of attack efficency with 9 spike points on 9 attempts- Argentina have lost seven consecutive World Championship matches, including all four matches in 2014.- Yael Castiglione celebrates her 29th birthday on the day of the matchThe top scorer of the match was Dominican Republic's Gina Mambru with 17 points, followed by her teammate Annerys Vargas scoring 16 points. For Argentina Lucia Fresco scored 12 points and Paula Nizetich with 10 points. Dominican Republic doubled Argentina's block total (12 to 6).
Tomorrow in the last match of this round, Dominican Republic will face the host team Italy, and Argentina will challenge Tunisia.
The opening set was in Dominican Republic’s sign with an early time out called by Guillermo Orduna at 6-3 for the Dominicans. Dominican Republic middle blockers were active early in the match. The first technical timeout saw an increase of the gap with four points advantage for Marcos Kwiek’s girls. Annerys Vargas and Candida Arias socred many fast attacks and the overwhelming score was 16-7 for hosts. Paula Nizetich’s companions committed many faults in block-defense and couldn’t recover the situation. Dominican Republic stood focused on their game and continued to push at serving. Bethania De La Cruz closed the set at 25-13 for her team.
The second set had a balanced start with two teams fighting in good spikes and defences. The first technical timeout saw the Dominicans only one point ahead at 8-7. Gina Mambru conquerred the first break for Dominican Republic at 11-9, but Lucia Fresco with a no-reply block over Prisilla Rivera’s attack tied the score at 11-11. The score stood tight til 16-16. Argentina’s block started to do its work better than in the previous set but it was not enough cause opponents found the way to overcome it and claimed a three points lead at 19-16. Orduna called timeout to recover the set at 21-16, and there was actually a comeback of Nizetich’s team but it was too late in the set, closed by a apike error of Emilce Sosa after two impressive defensiv touches at 25-20.
The third set started with Argentina taking a three-point lead at 5-2 on Emilce Sosa’s serve and on Nizetich’s spikes. The first technical timeout was clearly in Argentina’s favour at the first technical timeout, 8-2. De La Cruz’s ace reduced the gap down to two points at 9-7, and another long rally brought a further point to Kwiek’s girls trailing 11-9. The two-point gap was still intact until 15-13 when Nizetich spiked strongly to increse the Argentina lead to three points. A yellow card was showed by the referee to Argentina’s setter Yael Castiglione at 16-14 for her team, but again Nizetich made important point to made her team lead the set at 18-14. Domincan Republic made too many errors in this part of the set and Fresco took advantage of it allowing her team to pick a very important six-point lead at this point of the set and managed to close it at 25-19.
The fourth set started with Dominican Republic trying to recover its game level, starting from the serve. The first technical timeout saw De La Cruz’s companions ahead in the score at 8-5. An amazing rally claimed the 10-5 advantage for Dominicans with a winning block. A spike by Nizetich and an ace by Leticia Boscacci reduced the gap down to four points for Argentina. Dominican’s libero Brenda Castillo was the protagonist of this set with many excellents defensive intervents. The second technical timeout came at 16-9 for Kwiek’s team that continued to pile on points despite Argentina’s defensive will. Nizetich’s ace made the 14th point for her team against the 19th of the opponents. A single block score by Boscacci and Dominicans spike error made the gap down to four points at 22-18 but this time Dominican Republic decided to quickly end the game and closed the match at 25-18.