Osaka, Japan, September 28, 2019 – The Dominican Republic faced off against the Netherlands on Saturday at Maruzen Intec Arena Osaka, having won against Argentina on the previous day. The Dominicans proved victorious in tie-break (25-23, 25-22, 25-27, 18-25, 15-4) fending off a resilient Netherlands squad which fell short in the final period.
Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek: "I'm more than just happy - I'm happy because of the way we won. This was a very hard, tough game. This is the sort of match that shows us the way forward. In the first and second sets we were able to win them easily. But in the third our reception got worse. And then the Netherlands service picked up, so we lost that (third) set and the next next one too. In the fifth our service and reception picked back up and so we were able to win. We still have one match left, and of course we'll study and practice for the next match against Serbia."
Dominican Republic captain Prisilla Rivera Brens: "I'm very happy with today's win. We knew today's match was going to be a tough one. I think we could have won 3-0 if not for service and blocking getting better from the Netherlands. Nonetheless, our service rhythm came back and our block started to function better, so we were able to win in the end."
Regarding their strong fifth set: "Our fifth set was a very short one. All of us - not only our players but our coaches too - all of us were united, we tried to focus on nothing but winning."
When asked about their never-give-up spirit, and the upcoming Olympic qualifiers: "I feel great responsibility to secure our place in the upcoming Olympic games. These days we had some matches that I think we cannot say were very good. We need to keep focus in Olympic qualifiers."
Netherlands player Anne Buijs: "This result was very disappointing for us for sure. I think we just couldn't show the way we can play. The Dominican Republic had a good day today."
Netherlands player Nicole Koolhaas: "I'm very disappointed how game went. After two sets we made some changes and we could make it work. However, the Dominicans got it going with their serve, and we just didn't have it after that."
On the upcoming Olympic qualifiers: "Generally speaking we have qualification against stronger teams, so for sure we have to play really, really good. We play in our home country, hope a lot of supporters can come and help us get the ticket to the Olympics."
On sign language she does in National anthem, and on hearing impaired people in Japan getting to see: "I've been doing this for three years. It's nice that (people in Japan) can see - though I don't think they can understand much because everywhere sign language is different. I hope they also do it with the Japanese anthem so they can sing along.
"My sister, she is older than me, she is deaf, so when I grew up I already started to learn because it was always there. She is watching a lot of our games especially in Holland, and for national anthem she was not always part of it, but she should be a part of it, just she should be part of it, just like other deaf people so I started using sign language so now deaf people can also sign along with the national anthem."
Netherlands coach Jamie Morrison: "First congrats to the Dominican Republic. They played a great match, they were working and hard going after everything until the end. I appreciated the spirit they showed. I was disappointed in with my team in the first two sets, because we weren't showing that same spirit. That's not who we normally are.
"I'm happy with what we were able to do in the third and fourth, and then their outside hitter went on a great serving run in the fifth set, and we weren't able to recover, and that's disappointing. The match was disappointing. And we'll find a way to come our and fight against Japan tomorrow night."
On the difference his captain makes on the court: "Well, she's our team captain for a reason. She's the heart of the team, and she holds people accountable. She works hard, and she does the little things that I don't think are appreciated. She might not score the most points, but her reception is extremely stable, her defence, if she's in the right spot, she's going to dig the ball. She's very, very reliable, she does the things that are important things that maybe don't show in the scorecard. And she's the heart of our team."
On using only two players in service reception: "We've done it a little bit before, but today is first time in this tournament for sure. And we have some good receivers on our team, so, we've played around with it in the past, but maybe the first time in competition today."
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