HONG KONG, July 11 (Xinhua) -- World No. 13 Dominican Republic upset world No. 7 China 3-1 here on Saturday to record its third win in the women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) preliminaries.
Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez had 20 points and Yonkaira Paola Pena Isabel and Gaila Ceneida Gonzalez Lopez added 18 apiece as the Dominicans recorded the 25-22, 21-25, 25-23 and 26-24 victory to improve to a 3-8 win-loss record while China slipped to 6-5.
After the two sides split the first two sets, the Chinese women rallied from 18-14 down to overtake the lead at 23-21 in the third set, only to find Dominican Republic run off four points in a row to make it two sets to one.
Trailing by 20-16 in the fourth set, China staged a brave 7-1 run to go up at 23-21, but Dominican Republic answered with a 5-1 burst with Gaila wrapping up the victory with a kill.
Zhuang Yushan led China with 25 points with Tang Xin and Li Chenxuan adding 15 and 10 respectively.
Also on Saturday, the Netherlands swept Germany 3-0, Thailand hammered Brazil 3-0, Italy rallied past Canada 3-2 and Türkiye overpowered Japan 3-1.
A total of 18 teams are taking part in the VNL preliminaries in various venues with the host China and the other best seven finishers on the standings to advance to the Finals, which is scheduled for July 22 to 26 in Macao, China.
With one round of preliminary matches remaining, the United States, Italy and Brazil shared a 9-2 record, followed by Türkiye on 8-3 and the Netherlands, Canada, Poland and Japan on 7-4. ■
