Lausanne, Switzerland, July 15, 2017 - The Dominican Republic meet Belgium for the first time in FIVB World Grand Prix history Sunday in Kaliningrad - though the two teams have met before at the 2014 FIVB World Championship in Italy, with the Caribbean side winning in five sets. The Dominican Republic dropped to 2-3 Saturday after blowing a 2-0 lead to The Netherlands, but Belgium are still winless in five matches this season.
Head-to-Head• Dominican Republic and Belgium have met once before at a world level tournament.
• At the 2014 world championships, Dominican Republic won in five sets after leading 2-0.
• Belgium have won three of their four World Grand Prix meetings with NORCECA sides, only losing to United States in 2015.
Dominican Republic• Dominican Republic have two wins and three defeats thus far in the 2017 World Grand Prix, Their last two matches ended in defeat.
• Since the opener of the 2016 competition, the Dominicans had avoided defeat in successive matches.
• Last time, Dominican Republic suffered a five-set defeat in the World Grand Prix was against Bulgaria last year. They went on to win the next match in a five-setter versus Argentina.
• Against Netherlands, Bethania De La Cruz was the only player with at least one point in the spikes (11), blocks (1) and serves (3) categories.
Belgium• Belgium are still winless in this season’s World Grand Prix. Including last season, their losing streak is now seven matches.
• Belgium have equalled their longest run of defeats in the World Grand Prix – seven in 2015. Another defeat would indicate their longest streak ever.
• In their debut season 2014, Belgium won eight of their first 11 World Grand Prix matches. Of 28 matches in the tournament since, they won only three.
• Britt Herbots (16) and Kaja Grobelna (13) were the two Belgian players reaching double figures in points scored against Russia on Saturday.