Brazil snaps Chinese winning streak – 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship
The last match in Pool F of the 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship featured two of the top teams in the tournament, Brazil and China, as the most talked about match of the whole tournament took place on Thursday, July 28. The Gran Chimu Hall in
Trujillo, Peru hosted the action-packed match, where Brazil emerged as the successful team. Brazil, ranked number one in the FIVB Junior and Youth World Rankings, defeated China by 3-0 (29-27, 25-19, and 25-20). They firmly held the top position in Pool F,
whereas China finished second. However, both teams will be playing in the final round of the tournament.
It was a point-to-point battle between two talented squads from start to end. Brazil’s Gabriela Souza started things off with long jump-serves. China had a great player in the form of Xiaoya Zhang, who responded to Brazil’s strike. The heavy exchange of
spikes started out with both sides trading leads at frequent intervals. As the first set inched its way to the end Samara Almeida of Brazil got a great kill to put an end to the tussle in the opening set and helped her side claim a win.
Success in the opening set provided a competitive edge to Brazil. They scored the first five points in the second set and continued putting more pressure on their rivals. The Chinese side seemed to have lost form in front of the six-time title holders. Sthefanie
Paulino and Gabriela Souza of Brazil were all over the nets. They developed a great chemistry and took the score by storm. China dropped the second set in a row and was reeling with a two set defecit.
The great display of volleyball by the Brazilian attackers and defenders continued in the third set as well. China struggled to gain stability but Brazil was not ready to acknowledge their efforts. Eventually, China had to give up as the Brazilians closed
third set with 5-point margin and pulled off success.
Brazil won the match strategically as the Head Coach Luizomar de Moura commented: “We had a strategy, we followed it. The match was a difficult one. It was one of our hardest opponents. We are glad. We have a prepared team, I changed Priscila for Juliana,
because they both have a great performance and she can also join to the starter team. This championship as well as the others is a long-term preparation for the future.”
China’s mentor, Jiande Xu, expressed positive views about his team’s performance. He said his side performed really well but somehow could not achieve the desired results. Xu is now all focused on the next semi-final game. He concluded; “For the next match,
we’ll give our best as we have always had.”
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