SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, December 23, 2021- Bethania De la Cruz has an exclusive place in world volleyball.
The stellar Dominican attacker is not only the only player in the history of the pastime invented by William Morgan with three games of more than 50 points, but last week she added another link that separates her from the rest of the athletes of the discipline of the ball and the high net.
By taking part in the FIVB Club World Championship in Ankara, Turkey, Bethania set an unprecedented milestone by representing three continents in different editions of the annual classic.
She did it for America when she debuted with Club Mirador from the Dominican Republic in 2011, the second of three tournaments in a row held in Doha, Qatar.
Then she was present in Europe with Eczacibaci VitrA Istanbul of Turkey in 2015 and with Dynamo Moscow in 2017 when the event took place in the cities of Zurich, Switzerland, and Kobe, Japan, respectively, and has just played with Altay Spor Kulubu from Kazakhstan representing Asia.
De la Cruz contributed to winning the gold medal in 2015 where she teamed up at Eczacibaci VitrA with American Jordan Larson the Most Valuable Player.
During her long career, the Dominican has reinforced the Vaqueras de Bayamón and Criollas de Caguas teams in Puerto Rico, Toray Arrows and Denso Airybees in Japan, GS Caltex in Korea, Eczacibaci VitrA Istanbul in Turkey, Dynamo Moscow and Dynamo Kazan in Russia, Savino Del Bene Scandicci in Italy, Jakarta Pertamina Energi in Indonesia and Altay in Kazjistan.
The veteran attacker owns the most memorable performance by a Dominican player at an FIVB event when in 2011 she set the record for most points in a World Cup game in Okayama, Japan to score 42 in a win over Germany on 12th of November.
In that edition of the World Cup, Bethania was No. 1 in points scored with 228 in 11 games for an average of 20.72 per game and topped the winning services department with 25.
In those two categories Bethania was seconded by Argentinean-Italian Carolina Costagrande who had 186 points and the Japanese Nana Iwasaka with 17.