Jineiry Martinez put up an almost impenetrable block, stuffing her opponents six times (out of her team's total of nine for the game) as the Dominican Republic stunned Turkey in four sets on Day 8 of the 2021 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League which continues at Italy's Adriatic resort of Rimini.
VNL 2021
USA enjoy solitude at top of Women's VNL table
Dominicans inflict first defeat on Turkey; USA go 8-0; Brazil stop Belgium's run
Published 10:24, 07 Jun 2021
The match was not too one-sided, and included unforced errors from both teams, but the Dominicans defended well, restricting Turkey's attacking to just 33% (45/137) while they themselves registered 42% (54/130).
The result put an end to Turkey's winning streak of seven matches, leaving USA the only undefeated side at the VNL after eight rounds of play as Turkey dropped to third place.
The Americans remain unstoppable, advancing to 8-0 after Haleigh Thompson attacked for 70% (7/10) and added five aces and three blocks to lead the defending champions to yet another sweep - this time of Korea.
Washington was the only player across both sides to score in double digits with her match high of 15 points.
Brazil, too, took advantage of Turkey's defeat to climb to second place in the standings, after putting an end to Belgium's four-match winning streak (all in tie-breaks) with an emphatic performance.
Led by Tandara Caixeta with 67% (16/24) in attack and a match high overall scoring of 17 points, Brazil never allowed Belgium to even think they could take this game from them.
Britt Herbots did score 12 points and that was more than enough to stay in pole position in the best scorers of the tournament table.
And the Netherlands are also up there, after twice coming from behind to take Poland in five.
Coach Avital Selinger made a few changes during the game, including starting with Juliet Lohuis instead of Indy Baijens in the middle after set 3, and Myrthe Schoot had to come in for Kirsten Knip on libero duties after the latter got injured - but it all eventually worked well for the Dutch who broke away with a five-point run after 7-7 in the tie-break to seal the game.
Japan are back in the chase of the table leaders. After losing to the Netherlands on the opening day of Week 3, they were back on form on Monday to easily overwhelm Canada as Ai Kurogo and Mayu Ishikawa shared top scoring honours on 13 points each - Ishikawa's tally including five aces.
Despite 18 blocks (6 from Irina Fetisova alone) Russia dropped a set to Thailand before eventually taking the match in four, with 17-year-old Arina Fedorovtseva scoring a match high of 20 (including three aces) and Nataliya Goncharova close behind on 19.
It was Thailand's second set in the tournament, after taking one from Korea in Week 1.
Meanwhile, Serbia's youngsters are back to their stunning winning ways again - this time inspired by captain Katarina Lazovic who produced the match high of 26 points to beat China in four.
A forced substitution of setters due to a back muscle problem, with Mila Djordjevic coming on for Ana Jaksic at 6-4 in the third, briefly disrupted Serbia's flow of play. But Jaksic was soon back in action as Serbia saw the match through with yet another thrilling performance.
The other highlight of the day on Monday was Italy scoring their second victory in the tournament with a sweep of Germany, with Camilla Mingardi bringing in the match high of 19 points.
It was Italy's second win in a row, following their first on Sunday against Korea, and shot the home side up to 12th place in the standings.
