Japan celebrate a point against the Dominican Republic
In Thursday’s last
duel in Montreux, Japan proved too strong for an inconstant Dominican squad.
Despite their good start into tonight’s clash, the Dominicans couldn’t hold the
pace throughout the game. After 86 minutes of play, Arisa Inoue ended the match
in Japan’s favour 26-24, 25-19, 25-23. Japan’s best scorer was Yuka Imamura
with 17 points while Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez contributed 12 kills for the
Dominicans.The Dominicans
jumped out for an impressive start in the opening set. Until the second technical
timeout, the Caribbean led by five points. However, despite their modest body
height, the Japanese never gave up and came back bravely. At 20-20, Dominican
Republic head coach Marco Kwiek called his ladies off court to have a serious
chat. Nevertheless, it was already too late as the momentum had changed to the
Japanese side. With a nice service winner, Yuka Imamura closed out the first
set in style 26-24 for Japan. The unexpected
turnaround in the first set didn’t help the Dominicans to improve their
confidence in the second set. Japan kept the pace high while the Caribbean
committed too many unforced errors for a comeback. Led by an inspiring Yuka
Imamura, the Asians kept the upper hand in the second set, cruising to an
undisputed 25-19 win.The story of the
match didn’t change in the third and last set as the Japanese never looked
back. Arisa Inoue ended tonight’s game with a hammer from the left at 25-23.