Team Japan delights home fans with 3-0 win over Dominican Republic – Volleyball news
Women’s volleyball team of Japan posted 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-18) victory over Dominican Republic on Friday and created a perfect chance of celebration for home fans.
Japan and Dominican Republic clashed in the second match of Pool F at Park Arena Komaki, while hosts profited the advantage of familiar conditions. After losing two matches in the first round of 2012 FIVB Grand Prix, Japan made a good move to take a winning
start in the second round of the tournament. Japanese team played without its key player Saori Kimura but still dominated the scene.
Sidarka de los Nuñez fought a great battle for Dominican Republic and charted match-high 13 points but failed to lead her team to success. Japan’s Mizuho Ishida added team-high 12 points and received a lot of applause from the home audience. Likewise, Megumi
Kurihara added 11 points in the win.
Home team stormed opponent’s half with ground breaking serves and swinging shots in the first set. Visiting Dominican Republic team suffered a lot of damage due to the early onslaught of hosts. The duo of Megumi Kurihara and Mizuho Ishida put up an excellent
show of volleyball and led Japan to 10-3 lead. Republican coach tried different combinations but nothing seemed to work in his team’s favour. In-form Japanese squad avoided any slip-ups and staged a steady performance, which led the team to 25-17 win in the
first set.
Second set turned out to be a total disaster for Dominican Republic. Charged-up Japanese musketeers devastated the rivals with deadly spikes and killing aces. The uproar of fans further boosted the morale of home players and put pressure on the visitors.
The DR squad could not sustain the pressure and slipped second set with heavy margin of 12 points, 13-25.
After dropping two sets in row, Dominican Republic finally got its form back in the third set. They played without the fear of defeat and created a tie of score at 7-all. The start of third set was good for Dominican Republic but the resilient rival Japan
bounced back in latter half of the game. Explosive shots of Sakoda put Japan back in lead. Thereafter Japan quickly covered the length of third set (25-18) and finished the match in straight sets.
Dominican Republic’s Coach Marcos Kweik said, “It is very difficult to make a comment on game like today. We made lots of mistakes, and our reception was not good as the percentage shows. For Japan, they had great serve control. Our libero is very young
and it was a lot of pressure for her. There are still two games left, and I hope we can improve for those. We’re going to play better moving forward.”
Tags: