Russia wins second straight FIVB Women’s World Championship
The final round of the Federation Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Women's Volleyball World Championship was played on Sunday in Tokyo, Japan. For the second year in a row Russia defeated Brazil in
the FIVB’s World Championship final. This time the match went to five sets as Russia bested the world’s top ranked team 3-2 (21-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-14, 15-11).
It was Russia’s second straight World Championship, and the country’s seventh overall Championship.
Ekaterina Gamova of Russia dominated the match, scoring 35 points with four blocks and two aces. She was 29 for 53 in her attacks compiling an impressive 54.7 percentage of success. Sheilla Castro was
the top scorer for Brazil with 26 points.
“[Gamova] was able to grab the chances she had throughout the match, but nobody played poorly on the team today,” said Russia’s coach, Vladimir Kuzyutkin. “The whole team can be credited for the good result
today. We have three or four young players who didn't have a lot of experience.”
Despite coming off a five set match with Japan the day before, Brazil began the match with much energy, jumping out to a 10-3 lead in the first set. With Brazil leading 20-15, Kuzyutkin called a timeout.
The move worked as Russia pulled to within one at 21-20, but Brazil pushed back taking the first set 25-21.
It was Russia taking the early lead in the second set by a score of 7-4. They increased their lead to 13-8 before Brazil called a timeout. But the timeout didn’t have the desired effect as Russia increased
the lead to 20-12 before finally winning the set 25-17.
Brazil shifted their attack to give Fabiana Claudino spiking opportunities in the third set. Three quick points from Claudino gave Brazil an 11-6 edge early in the set. Then while up 22-20, Castro smashed
a spike off Liubov Shashkova’s face. Castro then graciously gave her a moment to recover before her next serve. Almost as if it was a reward for good sportsmanship, Brazil scored the next two points to earn a 25-20 set win, and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Russia looked desperate, but focused, in the fourth set, taking an early 7-3 lead, and extending it to 12-6 after Tatiana Kosheleva made a fantastic diving save, which set up one of Gamova’s points. Russia
continued to pressure Brazil all set, finally winning the match 25-14.
The teams battled back-and-forth in the fifth set. Brazil took an early 2-0 lead, but Russia kept close and trailed 8-7 when they changed sides. Russia went up 11-9 as Gamova continued to pound out points,
and with the score 14-11 for Russia, she smashed the ball deep into Brazil’s back-court. Castro made a valiant attempt to bump the spike, but she wasn’t able to control it as Russia took the match, and the Championship, 15-11.
“I would like to congratulate Brazil on their play. It was an amazing match,” said Russia’s captain, Maria Borodakova. “I want to thank our coaches and all the players and all the staff. Our coach really
took good care of us.”
Tags: