Yokohama, Japan, September 19, 2019 – Russia defeated the Dominican Republic 3-2 (25-16, 25-23, 23-25, 23-25, 15-5) for their fourth victory at the FIVB Women’s World Cup on Thursday and coach Sergio Buscato said his team overcame fatigue to win.
Russia coach Sergio Busato: "I’m very satisfied. Five days is very difficult physically and mentally. They have two leaders in Martinez and De La Cruz. We showed character to win today. We prepared well for the Dominican Republic. It was difficult because we played one of the best teams in the tournament. Every team is getting tired now including my team.
"Every set is important for the development of the team. We will learn from losing the third set today. It will be good for training and give us focus."
Russia captain Evgeniya Startseva: "I’m happy to win today. At the beginning of the first set we played well but we lost concentration later. In the end we could win, so it was good. The fifth set was important because we could develop our feeling in that situation."
Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek: "Nobody is happy to lose, but we did get one point. That is an achievement. We came back from 0-2, but we lost the fifth set by a large margin."
Dominican Republic captain Prisilla Rivera: "It was a good game. They had a good block today. We did not get the result we wanted, but it was an interesting match to watch. We came back from 0-2 down and earned one point, so that was good."