Dominican Republic Coach Marcos Kwiek

I'm really happy with today's win because we know that Japan is a strong team and playing before so many of their fans it would be hard for us to win. But we got a good result. After changing court, I think Japan changed their style of play. They play really fast and it's really difficult to win against them, but we analyzed their style and, as coach, I'm very happy with this win. I think we made a step forward toward getting a medal.

(How does this win bode for the team's future?)

Of course, to beat Japan is great, but we are a very young team – both the players who came here and those still in the Dominican Republic. We have many teenagers in our team and with this young team we were able to get a win, so that is a positive point. I hope it means that the Dominican team's future will be brighter than before.

(You lost the first set and then won three straight; please comment on this.)

In the first set, each point was really important. Although we played well, our rotation wasn't good enough, but 26-24 is not a bad score. From the second set, we changed the rotation, moving the setter from the back line to the back left, and this had a positive effect. We kept this for the third set, and in the fourth set Japan also changed their rotation, but we were playing our own style of volleyball and it was having the desired effect.

Dominican Republic Captain Milagros Cabral de la Cruz

As captain, I'm really happy to win against Japan today. We've played and won against Japan before, but not in Japan. Today we were able to pick up a victory against Japan in Japan, so I'm very happy about that.

(Your serving was good today; how did that help you?

As a team we served well and this prevented Japan from playing at their best.

(Did you target any player for special attention?)

Yes, we paid special attention to No. 11 Araki during service set and other setting and we succeeded in preventing her from playing well.

We also had good blocking today and our attacks from the sides were good, and these are the reasons why we won today.

Japan Coach Masayoshi Manabe

The reason why we lost is that although we attacked from our serve, we couldn't stop the attack from the left side of the Dominican Republic, especially the No. 10 (Cabral).

(How did the Dominican team rotation change affect the team?)

There was no effect.

(How did the loss of Kurihara affect the team)

It didn't have any effect. The Dominicans' offense was better than us. We couldn't play our own style of volleyball, which is fast play.

(This time, how do you feel about Dominican team?)

Last year, we watched various teams play and my impression about the Dominican team is that their receiving wasn't as good as today. Today, they played differently and had good receiving and blocking, so they were a different team.

Japan Captain Erika Araki

I really wanted to win this game, so I'm really disappointed about the result.

(Re. Tomorrow's game)

We want to play to our full abilities and strengths as a team.

Japan No. 3 Yoshie Takeshita

We couldn't play our own style of volleyball and I'm really disappointed about the result.

I will try to do my best tomorrow.