Florence, Italy, September 13, 2018 - The Dominican Republic and Japan meet Thursday for the very first time across all major competitions. Both seek their first victory in the 2018 FIVB World Championship after the Caribbean side lost to Slovenia and Japan fell to Italy in their opening matches.
Head-to-Head
• The Dominican Republic and Japan will play each other for the first time in a world level major tournament match.
• The world level major tournaments are Olympic Games, World Championship, World Cup, World League, Grand Champions Cup and Nations League.
• The Dominican Republic's only world level major tournament match versus AVC opposition was a straight-set defeat against China in Monterrey at the 1974 World Championship.
Dominican Republic
• The Dominican Republic lost their opening match 3-1 against Slovenia.
• The Dominican Republic are in their second World Championship, after 1974, when they lost their first five matches before winning in straight sets against Puerto Rico.
• In 1974, they won three of their 11 total matches.
• Nine players contributed in the scoring for the Dominican Republic against Slovenia, with Henry Antonio Lopez Capellan (12 points) and Elvis Dalsires Contrera De Los Santos (10) reaching double figures.
Japan
• Japan kicked off their 2018 World Championship campaign with a 3-0 defeat over co-hosts Italy in Rome. Issei Otake led the scoring for Japan with 11 points.
• Japan have lost nine of their last 10 World Championship matches, with the only exception in that run a five-set victory over Egypt on 27 September 2010.
• Japan's overall record at the World Championship is W61-L61.
• Japan's best performance at the World Championship was third in 1970 and 1974.