Russia defeated by Brazil in the quarterfinals of Women’s Olympic Volleyball Tournament – Volleyball News
The dreams of Russian volleyball fans thrashed as the women’s national volleyball team lost to Brazil in the quarterfinal match on Tuesday, 3-2 (24-26, 25-22, 19-25, 25-22, and 21-19).
The five-set thriller put both teams to a test of skills and temperament at the Earls Court in London. A crowd of 11,500 people cheered at the teams during the match. The opening set of the match portrayed a different picture as Russia seized the win. However,
the South American ladies proved their potential and held off competitors for 3-2 victory. The 2008 Olympic champions (Brazil) put up a valiant effort and qualified for the semi-finals.
The top-scorer of the match emerged from the losing side as Russia’s Liubov Shashkova contributed 28 points. Brazil’s Sheilla Castro was only short of one point and ended as the second-best scorer of the match. She was credited for 27 points.
Elsewhere, Ekaterina Gamova and Nataliya Goncharova chipped in 25 points each for Russia. Likewise, Thaisa Menezes helped Brazil with 24 points.
The match started out evenly and both teams regularly added points. Brazilian and Russian hitters came into stride and showed their amazing tactics. The scoring remained tight until the set-points, while Russia managed to claim opening stanza with two points.
Brazil responded quickly and levelled the game score by winning second set of the match. In the tie-breaker third set, Russian ladies once again took away the game from Brazilians. Russia captured third set and moved to 2-1 in the match. The see-saw battle
continued and Brazil hit the equalizer by winning fourth set. The decisive final set also featured a lot of action and finally ended in Brazil’s favour. Russia suffered the loss, while Brazil celebrated significant victory.
Jose Guimaraes, the winning coach of Team Brazil, was simply overjoyed with the sense of accomplishment. He expressed his emotions in the following manner: “I don’t know if my heart can cope with much more, oh my God. This game was a bit close and difficult,
but my players knew what to do. The defence responded well because Russia are very good on the attack.”
On the other hand, Russian coach Sergey Ovchinnikov regretted the crucial loss, but urged his side to move on. He commented: “You cannot replay the situation, they could have performed better. I agree, we could struggle more and our defense had some problems.
We should have thought our strategy better. But life doesn’t end at this point”.
Brazil will now take on Japan in the semi-final match on Thursday, August 9. Japan clawed its way to the semis by edging out tough rival China in the quarterfinal stage.
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