Brazil qualifies for semi-finals: 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship - Volleyball
The Brazilian Women’s Junior Volleyball team worked out a great win over Slovakia on Wednesday, July 27, in the semi-final qualification match. Both teams headed to the Gran Chimu competition hall in Trujillo, Peru for a Pool F encounter. Brazil out-played their opponents in straight sets by posting a 3-0 (25-13, 25-22, and 25-12) win.
The six-time gold-medallist team at the FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship is now in a strong competition alongside China in Pool F as both teams have equal number of points. The situation will get clearer once China and Brazil will make it to centre court on Thursday. So far, Brazil has a slightly better winning record than China. They won both their matches without losing a single set but China dropped one set in their last match against Slovakia. Nonetheless, Brazil and China have been confirmed for the semi-final after they topped their group.
During the match, Gabriela Souza of Brazil was simply amazing. She hit the ball from different angles and raised her team’s score consistently. Similarly, Marjorie Correa played her part on the defence side. The Slovakian players were confounded by her great display of blocking and suffered the loss of the opening set.
Team Slovakia resisted in the second set and hit back. Lucia Nikmonova, the libero from Slovakia, was quick to dig the difficult shots. Slovakia managed to find their footing after a first technical timeout. They continued with their efforts and tied the score at 16-all. However, Brazil bounced back in the game and once again took the lead. Samara Almeida helped Brazil win the second set with her great digging and diving.
Slovakia was in deep trouble after losing two sets in a row. Brazilians took full advantage of the nervousness of their opponents and cruised past them to victory in the final set. Stefanie Paulino led Brazil with seven points in the third set and it took them only 23 minutes to claim the third set and announce victory over Slovakia.
Luizomar de Moura, the Head Coach of Brazil stated: “We knew that Slovakia’s team was a hard one, they were a powerful opponent against China and we were afraid that such a great team was going to play against us, fortunately we stopped Slovakian’s strongest moves and astonishing speed. Slovakia is a very good team and we study them well" “It is well known that China and Brazil are two traditional volleyball schools. Tomorrow’s match against China might be our nemesis, but we do not fear them.”
Brazilian skipper, Priscila Heldes, hopes to continue with the same results in the crucial upcoming matches. She seemed confident about playing in the final showdown of the 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship.
Meanwhile, the Slovakian Coach, Rojko Marek, acknowledged that Brazil deserved to win the match and he wished Brazil good luck in winning the title this year.
Tags: