Bethania de la Cruz
Bethania de la Cruz de Peña (born May 13, 1987) is a female volleyball player from the Dominican Republic, who won the gold medal with the Dominican women's national team at the 2009 NORCECA Championship and the 2010 Pan-American Cup. Career. 2006. De la Cruz won the Most Valuable Player award when she helped her Dominican professional club Mirador to win the Championship. Playing with her "Junior National Team" at the 2006 U-20 NORCECA Women's Junior Continental Championship, she won the "Most Valuable Player" and "Best Scorer" awards. Her team won the silver  medal. She became the MVP of the "2006 TV Azteca's Women Stars Volleyball Cup", played in Monterrey, Mexico won by the team with a perfect record in 5 matches. Previously, she won the bronze medal in beach volleyball at the "2006 National Championship", playing with Karla Echenique. After that season she became "Dominican Republic Volleyball Player of the Year". 2007. At the 2007 Pan-American Cup she took the bronze medal with her National Team and also the "Best Scorer" award. She took the same award later at the 2007 NORCECA Championship. She played with the Puero Rican professional  team Vaqueras de Bayamón for the 2007 season, being awarded as MVP of the All-Star Game, and the "Best Spiker" of the season. 2008. For the 2007/2008 season of the Japanese V.Premier League she played with the Toray Arrows, finishing as league champion and "Best 6". At the end of the season she won for the second time the "2008 Dominican Republic Volleyball Player of the Year". With her National Team, she won the Silver Medal and the "Best Attacker" and "Best Scorer" at the 2008 Final Four Cup. Same year was awarded "Best Attacker" at the 2008 edition  of the Salonpas Cup. The next season, 2008/2009, she played for the South Korean team GS Caltex. 2009. The Dominican Republic Guild of Sport Writers make her recipient of the 2008 Volleyball Athlete of the Year. In June 2009, at the 2010 World Championship NORCECA Qualification Pool H, at Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, she won the Best Spiker award. A month later, she carry her National Team to the silver medal at the 2009 Pan-American Cup, and she was elected "Most Valuable Player" of the event. After winning with her team the 2009 NORCECA Championship, she took  a sabbatical year due to maternity. 2010. Returning from the sabbatical year, De La Cruz joined her National Senior Team winning the 2010 Final Four Cup gold medal. De la Cruz played with the local team Navarrete from Santiago, Dominican Republic, taking the team to the final series. During the final series, Bethania left the team to participate with Mirador at the World Club Championship, taking the fourth place. Later Navarrete would take the Santiago Intermunicipal Championship. 2011. Bethania joined the Canadian Stacey Gordon and countrymate Brenda Castillo at the Puerto Rican team Criollas de Caguas to play the 2011  Puerto Rican League season, leading the team to win the regular season with a 20-2 record. De la Cruz set a new record in serving, with 57 aces, topped the scorers with 392 points and won the "Most Valuable Player" award. Despite of all these awards, Bethania said she wasn't in plenty physically shape. During the quarterfinals, she set another record with 9 aces in a playoff match. Bethania crowned the season winning the Puerto Rico League Championship, sweeping the final series against the Mets de Guaynabo. De La Cruz win the MVP award and the silver medal  at the 2011 NORCECA Championship. One month later, Bethania participated with her home team at the 2011 Pan American Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico. She won the Best Scorer award and her team finished in 4th place. The Japanese club Denso Airybees, announced her joining in November 2011. Bethania win the Best Scorer and Best Server awards at the 2011 World Cup played in November in Japan. As the key player for her team, she was four times the Top Scorer by day and had three of the five best performances during the competition, including 42 points Vs. Germany on  November 12. Her national team finished in the 8th place. 2012-2015. For her performances during 2011, De la Cruz was named Volleyball Player of the Year and nominated for the top national award of Athlete of the Year, later won by taekwondo practitioner and Olympic medalist Gabriel Mercedes and was awarded by the Dominican Republic Guild of Sport Writers among the 2011 Vollyeball Athlete of the Year. De la Cruz joined the Turkish club Eczacıbaşı VitrA and help them win the 2014–15 CEV Champions League by defeating 3-0 to the Italian Yamamay Busto Arsizio. She was named one  of the Best Outside Spikers from the competition. This championship qualified her club to the 2015 FIVB Club World Championship that her team won after beating the Russian Dinamo Krasnodar. 2016-. She joined the ongoing 2019 Indonesian Proliga club Jakarta Pertamina Energi starting in the second round, She then headed to Russia, having signed with Dynamo Kazan. With this club she won the 2019 Russian Cup gold medal and the Best Server award. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia the championship stopped and Dinamo Kazan was declared season's champion. She was offered an extension for the 2020/21 season , but she took so long to answer. she was awarded jointly with Brayelin Martinez 2019 Vollyeball Athlete of the Year by the Dominican Republic Guild of Sport Writers. De la Cruz finished in the second place during the 2021 season of the players centered, American league Athletes Unlimited Volleyball, after recording 3,690 points, just behind Olympic American player Jordan Larson, who recorded 4,569. She was named 2021 Volleyball Player of the Year and nominated for the Athlete of the Year award, the latter finally won by water skier Robert Pigozzi. For the 2021 Club World Championship, she joined the Kazakh  club Altay Volleyball Club.