Sapporo, Japan, October 1, 2018 - The Dominican Republic and Kazakhstan will be meeting for the first time in the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship to earn their first victory in the 2018 edition.
Head-to-Head
• Dominican Republic and Kazakhstan will meet for the first time at the World Championships.
• Dominican Republic and Kazakhstan have clashed twice at world level major competition (Nations League, Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup, World Grand Prix and Grand Champions Cup), with both nations recording one victory.
• On 21 August 2011, Dominican Republic beat Kazakhstan in five sets at the 2011 World Grand Prix (15-25, 27-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-9). Bethania De La Cruz de Peña scored a match-high 32 points.
• At the 2007 World Grand Prix, Kazakhstan beat Dominican Republic 3-2 in the preliminary round (25-19, 25-23, 21-25, 21-25, 15-13). De La Cruz de Peña again was the top scorer, with 30 points. Yelena Pavlova contributed for 26 points.
• Dominican Republic have lost all their previous seven World Championships matches against Asian opposition, including four in straight sets.
Dominican Republic
• Dominican Republic started their 2018 World Championship with 3-0 defeats against Serbia and Brazil.
• Dominican Republic have now lost six World Championship matches in a row. This streak comes immediately after seven wins from the start of the 2014 campaign.
• Dominican Republic could now lose seven successive World Championship matches for the second time, after eight in a row in 1998-2002.
• Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez (17 points) is her team's tournament top scorer thus far.
Kazakhstan• Kazakhstan lost their opening matches 3-0 against Kenya and Puerto Rico.
• In each of their previous three World Championships appearances, Kazakhstan started with at least three defeats.
• Kazakhstan have won three of their 21 World Championships matches. All three wins came in straight sets - versus Thailand (2014), Mexico (2014) and Cameroon (2006).
• Each of Kazakhstan's last 11 defeats at World Championships came by a 3-0 scoreline. Their last non-straight set defeat in the competition came versus Cuba in the 2010 first group stage (3-2).