Dominican Republic keep semi- final hopes alive: 2011 FIVB Junior World Championship
Dominican Republic is playing in Pool E of the 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship. They are accompanied by teams from Italy, United States and host country Peru. Following a shaky performance against U.S. team in the previous match, the Dominican
Republic squad made a great come-back and defeated host Peru in the second match on Wednesday, July 27, and created a chance for them to play in the semi-finals.
The visiting team demonstrated a stellar performance and dominated the home team in front of the local audience. With a better combination of attack and defence, Dominican Republic closed the match with 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, and 25-15) victory.
Dominican Republic’s top-hitter, Paola Peña played a vital part in her team’s victory. She registered 19 points via 28 attack-attempts, 6 blocks, and 8 serves. On the other end, Brenda Uribe of Peru earned the status of top-scorer in her team. She clipped
12 points.
Match was opened on a high note as score shifted up with a close gap. Exchange of powerful serves and hard spikes from both sides was seen in the early phase of the match. The score-board showed the difference of one-point in scores at the first technical
timeout. Clarivett Yllescas of Peru committed serve-error, which put the opposite team in lead. Peruvian Grecia Herrada stood strong in her athletic shoes and saved many crucial points. Peru had strong defence but Dominican players didn’t stop the attacking
shots. They remained remarkably consistent and jumped to 16-13. In the next few moments, Peru scored one-point, while visitors moved to the digit 20. Despite of the great emotional support of local fans, Peru failed to save the opening set and received 19-25
defeat.
Second set of the game had a sort similarity with the previous set. Raged-up Peruvian ladies threw everything in attack, in order to seek revenge. They picked up a lead of 8-6 at the FTT. Meanwhile, Dominicans tried to hinder the performance of opponents
and followed different strategy. Nonetheless, home team kept one step ahead of the rivals. Clarivett Yllescas did a great job in keeping Peru in lead. Dominican Republic looked for the right moment to push Peru behind. It actually happened when Peruvian side
couldn’t help a block mistake and Dominican Republic went up (22-20). Peru quickly added two points and tied the score at 22-all but again the reception error by Peru put other team in lead. Thanks to Pena’s spike that closed the second set in Dominican Republic’s
favour (26-24).
Dominican Republic had a clear sign to go for the third set with confidence. Ginna Lopez of Peru struggled to break the tempo of the Dominican hitters but the team on the whole could not achieve the desired results. Peru dropped the set and lost the match
as well.
The competition is tough ahead but the Dominican Republic is keeping the hope alive that they will play in the semi-finals. They will have to overcome the power of the Italian team in the next match, which is set to take place on Thursday, July 28. The Dominicans
might also move forward if U.S. team loses to Peru in the next fixture.
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