Yokohama, Japan, September 14, 2019 – Sarina Koga scored a match-high 28 points to power Japan past the Dominican Republic 3-1 (25-21, 25-11, 24-26, 25-14) at the FIVB Women’s World Cup on Saturday and she said the result should give the team confidence in the coming matches.
Japan coach Kumi Nakada: "We really wanted to win the first match. The question was how to stop their attack and score points. We discussed this beforehand. Our good reception gave us options tonight. We had good flow in the first and second sets. We lost our rhythm in the third set.
"I think tonight’s result will be good for the next matches. Miwako Osanai gave us speed as a substitute tonight and Mayu Ishikawa helped as a pinch server."
Japan player Sarina Koga: "I was nervous tonight. We should correct our mistakes for the next match and be confident after this result."
Japan player Yuki Ishii: "We scored on back attacks and from wide range tonight. We had many options from the left and the back attacks helped the team."
Japan player Miya Sato: "In this first match I could not help our attackers at the start. We did find our rhythm and win, so it was a good result."
Dominican Republic coach Marcos Kwiek: "Nobody is happy with the losing result. It was tough. We always have a tight match attack was bad.
"(Libero) Brenda Castillo is not with the team now after suffering a fracture to her arm in a car accident last month."
Dominican Republic captain Prisilla Rivera: "It was a tough match against Japan at their home. Japan was able to score by capitalizing on our weak points. We made many errors."
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