China-bound Praia back at the top in the Superliga

Dentil Praia Clube secured a massive victory on Tuesday, on the eve of their trip to China, to compete at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship 2024, beating in-state rivals Gerdau Minas for first place in the Brazilian Women’s Superliga.

The Minas Gerais rivals, which will both represent Brazil at next week’s event in Hangzhou, fought week in, week out for the top of the standings and the decision came down to their last match in the first round, which ended with a narrow 3-2 (15-25, 25-21, 16-25, 25-23, 15-12) victory by Praia, who were at home on Tuesday, playing in Uberlândia.

Select Brazilian Men’s and Women’s Superliga matches are available live for VBTV subscribers located in Brazil.

Praia are now one point ahead of Minas (26 to 25) and are guaranteed to finish the first round of the regular season at the top of the standings as, even though third-placed Osasco São Cristovão Saúde could still get to the same 26 points, they would have fewer victories.

Praia showed nerves of steel in the tie-breaker, coming back from a 12-8 deficit to score seven points in a row and claim the win. Olympic champion middle blocker Adenízia Ferreira, who tallied 18 points, including a match-high eight blocks, was awarded as the Player of the Match.

“It was a team victory, we needed everyone today and we all delivered,” she said. “The start of the season hasn’t been easy for us because we have several new players and had to deal with a few injuries, but we’re progressing. We know where we want to get and are moving forward step by step. Now we got to China very motivated and very aware of our chances. It’s not going to be easy, but we’re going there to fight for the title.”

American opposite Nia Reed, with 21 points (19 kills, two blocks), and Russian outside hitter Sofya Kuznetsova, with 15 (14 kills, one block), also had solid production for Praia.

Minas had the two main scorers of the match in Brazilian national team opposite Kisy Nascimento, who led the way with 25 points (22 kills, two aces, one block), and Dutch national team outside hitter Celeste Plak, who added another 23 (20 kills, two blocks, one ace).

“We knew it was going to be a tough match,” Kisy reacted. “The first place was in play and both teams wanted very much to take it. I’m happy for what we showed today, but also frustrated because we couldn’t win. We were in a good spot to take the match, but lost focus at the end. Now we focus on the Club World Championship so we don’t make the same mistakes there.”

Club World Championship up next

Minas will be the first of the two Brazilian sides to play at the Club World Championship, facing Italy’s Numia Vero Volley Milano in their opening match, next Tuesday. They will also play Egypt’s Zamalek Sporting Club and China’s Tianjin Bojai Bank in Pool A.

Praia are in Pool B and will have Italian giants Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano as their first opponents, also on Tuesday. The Superliga leaders will also face Japan’s NEC Red Rockets Kawasaki and Vietnam’s LP Bank Ninh Binh in pool play.

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