Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2, 2018 - After losing their last match to Brazil, The Netherlands seek to bounce back when they host the Dominican Republic, Tuesday in Rotterdam for the 2018 FIVB Volleyball Nations League. In fact The Netherlands have won eigh of the nine previous encounters with the Caribbean side - their last defeat as far back as 44 years ago, at the 1974 FIVB World Championship, when the two sides met for the first time.
Head-to-Head
• The Netherlands have won eight of their nine previous major world level encounters against the Dominican Republic.
• The women's world level major competitions are: the VNL, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup.
• The Dominican Republic's sole major world level win versus The Netherlands came in their first meeting, 3-0 at the 1974 World Championships.
• The most recent meetings between The Netherlands and the Dominican Republic at major world level were at last year's World Grand Prix. The Dutch won 3-0 in Apeldoorn and 3-2 in Kaliningrad.
• The Netherlands have only recorded more wins at major world level against Germany (11, including East Germany and West Germany), Japan (9) and Italy (9) than versus Dominican Republic (8).
Netherlands
• The Netherlands are currently fourth in the VNL, with seven wins and 20 points.
• The Netherlands have won seven of their nine VNL matches, only losing against the United States (3-0) and Brazil (3-1).
• The Netherlands have won six of their nine major world level fixtures played on home soil, only losing versus Puerto Rico (2014 World Grand Prix), Japan (2017 World Grand Prix) and Brazil (2018 VNL).
• Anne Buijs (109) is the Netherlands' leading scorer in the VNL. Lonneke Sloetjes follows on 103 points despite not having played in the first week of the competition.
• Maret Balkestein-Grothues (averaging 1.90 per set) is the second-best digger in the competition behind Turkey's Simge Sebnem Akoz (2.20).
Dominican Republic
• The Dominican Republic are currently ranked 13th in the VNL, ahead of only Thailand, Belgium and Argentina.
• The Dominican Republic have won only two matches at the VNL, both against teams currently ranked below them: 3-0 versus Argentina and 3-0 against Thailand.
• The Dominican Republic have won their last three matches at major world level competitions in which they claimed the opening set.
• Brayelin Martinez is the fourth-best scorer in the VNL on 155 points. She has scored 54 points more than Dominican Republic's next best scorer: Yonkaira Pena (101).