It will be the fourth time the Caribbean island nation qualify for the Olympic Games, after participating in Athens 2004, in London 2012, where they reached the quarterfinals, and in Tokyo 2020.
In Sunday’s do-or-die duel, the Dutch managed to come back from a set down twice during the game before the Dominicans could celebrate a victory, which propelled them to the top of the table on a 6-1 win-loss record and 17 points. The Dutch could have been among the top two, but had to settle for the fifth place on 4-3 and 13.
Each of the first four sets itself was a small rollercoaster, in which the two teams battled hard, taking turns in the lead, to eventually push the match to a deciding fifth set. In the tie-breaker, Dominican Republic stepped in front with the very first rally and never let go of their lead again until Nika Daalderop’s serving error for the last point of the match.
The Netherlands outplayed the Dominicans in all scoring elements: 65-63 in attack kills, 8-7 in kill blocks and 6-5 in serving aces, but also made 50% more unforced errors than the opponents (33 against 22), which cost them the match. Dominican outside hitter Brayelin Martinez and her Dutch counterpart Nika Daalderop engaged in a scoring race, which ended tied at 23 points each. While all of Martinez’s points came in offence at a 51% success rate, Daalderop registered three kill blocks and two aces towards her tally. Six more players reached the double digits during the game: Yonkaira Pena with 17 points, Gaila Gonzalez with 16, and Jineiry Martinez with 10 on the winners’ side, and Celeste Plak with 18 points, Indy Baijens with 15, and Marrit Jasper with 14 for the European team.
