Press release

Doha, Qatar, October 13, 2011 – Rabita Baku overwhelmed Mirador Santo Domingo 25-15, 25-15, 25-8 on Thursday evening to advance to the FIVB Women’s Club World Championship gold-medal match where they will face VakifBank TTelekom Istanbul in Doha, Qatar.

The title match will take place at 5 p.m., while the bronze medal match of Mirador Santo Domingo and Sollys Nestle Osasco will be played Friday at 10 a.m. Earlier today VakifBank TTelekom Istanbul defeated Sollys Nestle Osasco in three sets in their semifinal match.

Rabita Baku was led by Natasa Osmokrovic’s 19 points, while Sanja Starovic contributed 15 points in the victory. Rabita Baku captain Natalya Mammadova did not compete in the match after being her team’s leading scorer during pool play. Mirador Santo Domingo was led by 15-year-old Brayelin Martinez and Jeoselina Rodriguez with nine points.

Rabita Baku held a 6-3 advantage in aces and benefited from 19 Mirador Santo Domingo errors in the match. Meanwhile Rabita Baku limited their mistakes to seven errors and achieved an 8-3 block advantage.

Rabita Baku rolled to an 8-2 advantage in the opening set and led 16-5 by the second technical timeout. After Rabita Baku controlled the set at 21-8, Mirador Santo Domingo scored seven of the next 11 points to close to 24-15 before giving up the final point at 25-15. Sanja Starovic and Natasa Osmokrovic led Rabita Baku with six points apiece.

Rabita Baku scored three straight points to break a 10-all tie in the second forcing Mirador Santo Domingo to call timeout trailing 13-10. Mira Golubovic served an ace and Osmokrovic tapped an attack down for a point in pushing the Rabita Baku lead to 18-12. By the end of the set, Rabita Baku duplicated their first set score of 25-15. Osmokrovic totaled eight points in the second set with seven spikes on 10 errorless attacks.

Rabita Baku won the first two points of the third set, only to have Mirador Santo Domingo tie the score at 2-all. Rabita Baku gained a three-point cushion at 5-2 on a Krsmanovic block and Starovic attack. Starovic added to the lead with an attack down the line at 7-3. Iryna Zhukova placed a block on the score sheet to increase Rabita Baku’s margin to 13-5 at a Mirador Santo Domingo timeout. Rabita Baku reached a double-digit advantage at 18-8 and rolled to the final 25-8 victory by scoring the final nine points of the set.