Brazil sweeps Cuba and heads to final of XVI Pan American Games - Volleyball
An exciting semi final of the XVI Pan American Games took place on October 19 between the number one ranked Brazilian national women’s volleyball team and Dominican Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico. The semi final between the two teams did not take long to reach its close as the Brazilians found themselves on the winning end of the contest after making a clean sweep over their opponents.
The first set of the match started off with both the teams fairly even but as the frame drew to its close the Brazilians were able to bag themselves a win. The next set went on the same pattern as the opening frame and the Brazilians prevailed despite the effort of the Dominican Republic. The third set was the most competitive one as both the teams stayed almost neck to neck with each other in the entire frame. However, it was the Brazilians that were able to seal the deal on the match at the following final set scores: 25-19, 25-18 and 25-23.
The coach of the winning team, Jose Roberto Guimaraes, expressed himself in the following manner at the press conference after the match had reached its close: “I think we began with two good sets, we lost concentration on the third and we didn’t think that Dominican Republic could make the match more complicated. But you have to respect a team like that, and even more when you have to dispute a match that gives you the chance to compete for a gold medal. I was worried about that.”
On the other hand, the coach of the Dominican Republic squad, Marcos Kwiek, made the following comments: “Playing against Brazil is always tough. Brazil is a team that doesn’t give you points. We have to fight to get the points and that is good because as long as we face teams like them, we will learn more.”
The last time that the Brazilians won the gold medal was in 1999 at the quadrennial event. The tournament was staged in Winnipeg, Canada. The Brazilians have the honour of bagging themselves the gold a total of three times so far. They will be playing in the final with the Cubans this time around.
The player that was able to register the most points in the entire match belonged to the Dominican Republic. Despite the fact that she found herself on the losing end of the game, Milagros Cabral was able to score 12 points for Dominican Republic. Milagros was helped by her teammate Prisilla Rivera who added a total of 11 points for her team. On the Brazilians end, Mari Steinbrecher was the most active player as she made her presence felt by scoring 10 points in all.
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