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2007 Women’s World cup:
Dominican Republic earn
second victory over Kenya
 Nagoya,
Japan, November 15, 2007 - The Dominican Republic picked up
their second win of the World Cup with a steady 25-19, 25-16,
25-18 victory over Kenya at Komaki Park Arena on Thursday. By
the tenth match and only one match ahead against Korea on
Friday, the African champions are seeking a victory.
Bethania De La Cruz led the Dominicans with 20 points and was
well supported by teammates Sidarka Nunez (15 points) and Cosiri
Rodriguez (13). Kenya's leading scorer was as usual Dorcas
Ndasaba with 11 points.
Kenya came into the game on the back of a close game against
Thailand, when they came close to achieving their first win.
Despite the five-set loss, they were happy to have won two sets
and a happy Kenya usually performs well. Ndasaba improved her
points total to 93 in that game.
The Dominican Republic were still searching for their second
victory -- they've only beaten Thailand -- but also for enough
consistency to dominate other teams. They have the big guns --
De La Cruz is the tournament's fourth-highest scorer -- but they
need to fire on a regular basis to make an impression.
There was little to separate the two teams at the start of the
match. Dominican captain Rodriguez found her spiking range early
but Ndasaba responded in kind, adding a block for good measure.
Nunez -- supremely talented but somewhat wayward at times --
came up with two decent spikes, with the second a bomb that saw
the Dominicans one point up at the first technical timeout. The
Kenyans drew level on a brilliant block by Brackcides Khadambi
on Rodriguez, but Nunez spiked the Dominicans back into the lead
and, led by Rodriguez, they slowly pulled away from Kenya. After
a nice spike and then a block from Cindy Rondon, a little push
shot from De La Cruz and a Kenyan error at the net, the
Dominican Republic were 21-11 up. But the Dominicans struggled
to close out the set. A booming spike by Mercy Moim sparked the
first mini-revivial and two big hits by Catherine Wanjiru saw
the Kenyans take the score from 24-15 to 24-19 before a rocket
by Nunez put an end to their hopes.
Kenya got into the groove first in the second set and breezed to
an 8-3 lead at the first TTO as the Dominicans committed three
errors and Nunez was blocked twice (by Ndasaba and Diana Khisa).
But Nunez returned with a vengeance, landing three high-flying
blows to engineer a Dominican fight back and the scores were
level at 12-12. De La Cruz, who had been relatively quiet up to
this point, also started to find her spiking range and two
decent contributions from the 18-year-old finally put her team
ahead at 16-15. Two more and another pile driver from Nunez put
the Dominicans in control. As he had done in the first set,
coach Beato Miguel Cruz brought on 15-year-old Brenda Castillo
and the youngster responded with another steady serving spell. A
setting error by Kenya's Moim brought setpoint and an
earth-shattering shot from De La Cruz put the Dominicans two
sets up.
Ndasaba kept the Kenyans in the game early in the third set with
a great little push shot and a thumping spike, but neither team
played particularly great volleyball. De La Cruz then came up
with two service aces to give the Dominicans the edge at 9-7.
But while they kept that edge through to the next TTO, they
couldn't fight the Kenyans off and the African team was never
more than two points behind, even drawing level at 15-15. But a
crashing spike and then a service ace by Rondon, followed by
three Kenyan errors put the Dominican Republic five points ahead
at 20-15. A bomb by Rodriguez brought match point and a
reception error by Ndasaba ended the match.
Photo Caption
Doris Palang'a (KEN) spikes |
