Dominican Republic qualifies for London Olympics 2012 – Volleyball news
Women’s Volleyball Team of Dominican Republic clinched Olympic berth by winning the finals of 2012 NORCECA Olympic Qualifiers in Tijuana, Mexico.
Dominican Republic defeated Cuba in the final match of NORCECA Olympic Qualifiers this past Saturday. The ladies from Dominican Republic staged an eye-catching action on the centre court and settled for 3-1 (25-18, 25-23, 27-29, 25-20) victory. Under the
command of Brazilian coach Marcos Kwiek, they made it to the Olympic Games for second time. Previously, Dominican Republic took part in 2004 Summer Olympic, which held in Athens, Greece.
Bethania De La Cruz of Dominican Republic grabbed a whole lot of attention for her game full of tactics. She hit the ball from all angles and accumulated match-high 25 points, which played a vital role in Dominican Republic’s victory. Moreover, the trio
of Milagros Cabral, Annerys Vargas and Lisvel Eve put up a combined effort and added 12, 11 and 10 points respectively.
Yoana Palacios ended with team-high 24 points, while Wilma Salas charted 14 in Cuba’s score.
Dominican Republic started out with power and produced mighty serves in the opening set. DR influenced Cuban rivals with quality of shots and kept them behind the attack-line with solid defence. Cuban ladies used many different ways to overcome the opponent
but lost first frame with seven points, 18-25. After dropping the opening stanza, Cuba gave a really good competition to Dominican Republic in the second set. Nonetheless, Dominican Republic improved to 2-0 by sending 25-23 on board.
Raged-up Cuban side managed to win the third set with a narrow margin (29-27) but dropped the match decision by losing fourth set, 20-25. Dominican Republic pulled off success in the influential match with 3-1 ratio.
The winning head coach, Marcos Kwiek shared his thoughts after the match. He stated, “To tell the truth I don’t have words to say what the feeling is. This is the result of four years of hard work and we were rewarded with the ticket to the London Games. The
girls did a fantastic job and kept a high level of concentration during the whole tournament and I also want to thank my technical staff and all the people who have supported us.”
Meanwhile, the skipper of the Dominican Republic team Cabral had her say about the match. She gave the credit of their success to team mentor Marcos, who came up with a winning plan and backed-up the team in difficult times. She complimented him in the following
manner, “I want to thank our head coach. In this match we went on to the court with a lot of desire. We fought and wanted badly to go to London 2012.”
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