Lausanne, Switzerland, July 14, 2017 - The Netherlands play the Dominican Republic Saturday in Kaliningrad in a rematch of last week's straight-set sweep at home in Apeldoorn. It's the sixth time the two teams come head-to-head in the history of the FIVB World Grand Prix and the Dutch have won all five previous encounters.
Head-to-Head• Netherlands have won all previous five World Grand Prix meetings with Dominican Republic, including last week in Apeldoorn, Netherlands (3-0).
• Dominican Republic have won two sets against Netherlands in the World Grand Prix. In 2009, they lost 3-2 in Macau.
• Netherlands have won the last 10 sets against Dominican Republic in all competitions combined.
Netherlands• Netherlands have started their World Grand Prix campaign with three victories and one defeat. All victories came in straight sets.
• Netherlands have won the first two sets in all four World Grand Prix matches they played in 2017.
• Netherlands could win four of their first five matches in Group 1 play. Last season, they claimed three wins in the first five en route to a third place finish in the tournament.
• Celeste Plak scored 21 of Netherlands’ 75 points in their 3-0 win over Belgium on Friday. She converted 18 of no less than 40 spike attempts.
Dominican Republic• Dominican Republic have two wins and two defeats thus far in the 2017 World Grand Prix.
• Dominican Republic lost 3-1 against Russia on Friday. With that result, they have still won nine of the last 11 matches in the World Grand Prix. The only other defeat came against Netherlands in the opener this season.
• Gina Mambru and Brayelin Martinez shared the top scoring honours for the team against Russia with 16 points each. Annerys Vargas and Jineiry Martinez delivered six blocks each.