Lausanne, Switzerland, July 8, 2017 - The Netherlands host Japan Sunday in Apeldoorn, looking to stay undefeated after bagging wins over Thailand and the Dominican Republic in the 2017 FIVB World Grand Prix. Japan, on the other hand, are now 1-1 after falling on Satuday to the Dominican Republic. It's the 11th time the two teams come head-to-head in the history of the competition, with the Dutch leading the series 6-4.
Head-to-Head• Netherlands and Japan will meet for the 11th time in the World Grand Prix. Netherlands have a slight edge with six wins to Japan's four.
• Two of Japan's four victories came in these team's only Final Round encounters (2005 and 2009).
• Netherlands could record seven victories against a specific opponent in the World Grand Prix for the first time. They have currently claimed six wins against Japan, Italy and Poland.
• These team's most recent meeting came in the qualification tournament for the 2016 Olympic Games. Japan won in five sets after trailing by 2-1 and winning a close fourth set 32-30.
Netherlands• Netherlands have started their 2017 World Grand Prix with two straight-set wins in front of a home crowd, against Dominican Republic and Thailand.
• They could start the competition with three victories for the first time since 2015, when they won all of their eight matches on their way to the Group 2 victory.
• In that season, they had two different runs of three straight-set victories.
• Netherlands are one shy of their 75th win in the World Grand Prix, becoming the eighth team to reach this mark.
• Celeste Plak became top scorer in both opening matches, scoring exactly 17 points in each of those fixtures.
Japan• After a 3-2 win against Thailand on the opening day, Japan failed to beat Dominican Republic (3-1).
• Japan could claim a set in seven successive World Grand Prix matches for the first time since a run of eight in 2014.
• Yurie Nabeya (16) scored most points for Japan against Dominican Republic, while Sarina Koga (23) was the team's top scorer against Thailand.