Dominican Republic – Chinese Taipei
Milagros Cabral and Bethania De la Cruz led the winners with 16 and 13 points respectively and each registered four blocks. Annerys Vargas and Gina Mambru had 9 apiece for the winners. Teng Yen-Min topped Chinese Taipei with 14 tallies.
The Dominicans blanked the opposition 16-0 in the blocking category while Chinese Taipei held a 10-6 margin in aces.
Dominican Republic led 8-6 and 16-14 at the technical time-outs. It was a close battle with both teams relying on their best abilities, Chinese Taipei with good serves and the home side taking advantage of the size at the net. At 20-20 Cabral scored with a spike and Mambru followed with a block. Eve gave Dominican Republic a three-point lead but Chinese Taipei answered with spike by Teng and ace from Lee only to see Mambru sealing the set 25-23 with a cross-court smash.
A solid block and a sharp shot from Cabral broke a 6-6 level to give Dominican Republic an 8-6 advantage in the second set. Chen responded with two spikes to tie the score but Nunez hit two bombs around a floating ace of Cabral. When De la Cruz opened the gap to 12-8 Chinese Taipei called for a time-out. A couple of Dominican errors allowed Chinese Taipei to get back in the set at 13-11. Block by De la Cruz and spike of Vargas sent Dominican Republic ahead 16-12. Vargas and De la Cruz parlayed block and spike to give breathing room to the home side. Once again Mambru scored the last point of the set for Dominican Republic.
In the third set, the Dominicans were in front 8-6 lead thanks to big spike by Cabral followed by an ace from De la Cruz. Eve expanded the gap with block and spike. The second technical time out found the local team leading 16-9 with Mambru scoring with a shot from back court. Chinese Taipei reacted behind a pair of spikes by Chen to close in at 22-16. The set finished 25-18 with a soft touch from Vargas.
