Miyashita sets up solid win as Japan moves step closer to Rio

Tokyo, Japan, May 20, 2016 – A superb display of setting from Haruka Miyashita and powerful spiking from Miyu Nagaoka has helped steer Japan to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 27-25) win over the Dominican Republic, ending any chance the Caribbean team had of qualifying for the Rio Olympics.

While Japan has played better this week, it was a solid result after the dramas of Wednesday night’s match against Thailand, but is still not enough to guarantee it will be going to a 12th Olympics.

Japanese coach Masayoshi Manabe opted to start Saori Sakoda over Miyu Nagaoka, but his Olympic star struggled to have her usual influence as the brash upstarts from the Dominican Republic took the fight up to the home team.

The Japanese were having trouble countering the power of 19-year-old Brayelin Martinez, and especially Prisilla Brens, who was leading all comers with six points at the end of the first set.

Japan looked to have it in the bag at 21-16, but when the …

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