MATCH INFO

Hiroshima, Japan, November 8, 2011 - Press Conference: China v Dominican Republic - China took its third win out of its first four World Cup matches today. Coach Yu Juemin was pleased with his team’s resolve, as this marked the third straight match they have rebounded after dropping the opening set.

China coach Yu Juemin: We lost the first set today, so I think we needed more preparation so that we can start at our best. The Dominicans prepared well, especially serving and blocking. They studied our offence well. However since October our team are in very good spirit. We concentrated on the World Cup, and so far we have managed to cope with some bad starts, managed our mental setbacks very well. That was what resulted in our victory here.

Is losing three of four first sets a lack of mental preparation? Maybe, but some of the opposing players have been far better than we expected, like De La Cruz. But having said that we need to study opponents better and establish a good strategy in order to win.

On subbing in Xu Yunli: She is young and often substitutes in for 15, Ma Yunwen, who has an injury and is not at her best. Xu has great potential, so this is why I turned to her.

On facing Argentina tomorrow: Yesterday was our day off and we mainly studied the Dominican team leading up to today. But we did study a game between the Dominicans and Argentina. So we’ll review our strategy for tomorrow's match.

China captain Wei Qiuyue: We lost the first set today, and we could see they had prepared well for us. By serving quick and blocking well they stopped our attack pretty well. But in the second we were more and had better concentration, and won in the end. Overall it was a good match.

On attacking and blocking: The Dominican Republic blocks strongly, but we managed to persevere in this one.

China player Xu Yunli: I can’t say the first set was good. We needed more preparation. We should start better. I needs to settle down and play be a little more consistent.

Dominican coach Marcos Kweik: The first set was good. Our blocking was good, but after that China’s attacking was stronger than our blocking. They’re faster than us. The third set was OK, but we should adjust our game for tomorrow against Japan.

On Bethania De La Cruz de Peña’s 29 points: She is one of the best attackers and servers on our side, however she needs to improve her blocking. She’s getting better but still makes mistakes. We strongly believe in her potential.

Dominican captain Milagros Cabral de la Cruz: We had a very good start winning the first, but lost concentration in the second and third. I think we should have better formation against Japan tomorrow.