Dominican Republic's Candida Estefany Arias Perez spikes.
Bari, Italy, October 1, 2014 – Dominican Republic held off a strong late surge from Belgium to claim a full set victory (25-17, 25-22, 22-25, 22-25, 15-6) at Palaflorio in the first match of second round Pool E at the 2014 FIVB Women's Volleyball World Championship.Key points:· After only three points (1-2), Belgium called the first “video challenge” of this World Championship and it was successful.· This was the first meeting between the two teams at the World Championship.· Dominican Republic have won all four World Championship meetings with teams representing Europe. All the matches came in 2014 and went to five sets.· Lise Van Hecke of Belgium an d Bethain De La Cruz from Dominican Republic scored 30 points each in the marathon match that lasted two hours and eight minutes.
Belgium called “video challenge” for a service of Charlotte Leys and they went ahead 2-1 after the referee's decision was reversed. Thanks to three mistakes made by Lise Van Hecke, Dominican Republic overtook the lead at 10-5. Coach Vande Broek called the timeout, but bad passing on European's side led De La Cruz to score from the free ball to make it 14-9. After the second TTO (16-10), Dominican Republic improved the lead to 23-17 and Vargas clinched the opener (25-17) for them.
Vande Broek replaced the wing spiker Els Vandesteene with Helene Rosseaux from the start of the second set before the two teams fought to a tie at 9-9. Gina Mambru and Bethania De la Cruz attacks gave Dominican Republic a 15-11 lead. Belgimu tried to come back (15-14), but Dominican Republic soon pulled away again and closed the second set 25-22 through Casilla Gina Altagracia Mambu.
The Yellow Tigers opened the third set in strong fashion (3-0). They led 16-11 at the second TTO. Marcos Kwiek's team managed to cut their deficit to 20-19. Even if there were some troubles, Vande Broek's team won the third set thanks to a soft lob of Rousseaux (25-22).
Belgians were determined to keep the match going as services from Frauke Dirickx gave them a comfortable cushion at 4-0. Dominican Republic steadily pulled within 8-5 and 16-15. Perez was out of the match after receiving an injury in a clash with teammates. Nina Coolman helped Belgium with her services to give them a 22-16 advantage and Charlotte Leys brought the teams to the tiebreak with a smash (25-22).
A block of Vargas gave Dominican Republic an amazing 6-2 start in the fifth set. The Belgian women fought hard to cut it to 9-5, only to find the opponents run off five points in a row and go on to seal the victory.