Praia sweep Minas and secure third Superliga title

Dentil Praia Clube dominated the in-state Derby that decided the 2025-2026 Brazilian Volleyball Women's Superliga, winning the tournament for the third time on Sunday in São Paulo.

The Uberlândia side gave no chance to rivals Gerdau Minas, triumphing 3-0 (29-27, 25-21, 25-13) at the Ibirapuera stadium and repeating as Brazilian champions for the third time, following victories in 2017-2018 and 2022-2023.

• Watch Brazilian Women's Superliga replays on VBTV

The victory in the Superliga final served as redemption for Praia, which had fallen to Minas in each of the five duels between the teams in 2025-2026 ahead of Sunday's decision, going down in the Minas Gerais State Championship final and the Brazilian Cup semifinals.

It also capped off the Uberlândia side's impressive recovery in the season. Praia lost three of their first five 2025-2026 Superliga matches and were ruled out as potential champions by many due to their inconsistent campaign.

"Everything this time has gone through is amazing," team captain and middle blocker Adenízia Ferreira said. "We faced a lot of criticism, and nobody believed us, but we're here. We'll lift the trophy, and this is a lesson to everybody who loves sports that you should always believe. Faith is what brought us here."

Veteran outside hitter Michelle Pavão played a key role in Praia's victory in the Superliga final. The 39-year-old delivered 14 points (12 kills, one block, one ace) and earned the MVP award in the final match of the season.

"I'm very emotional because nobody believed us," she added. "At a certain point, not even we believed in ourselves. But we started working with our psychologist ahead of the quarterfinals with the idea that we'd be David taking down Goliath. We believed in it, and right now it feels as if we had returned from the ashes."

Praia also counted on 15 points (13 kills, one block, one ace) from American outside hitter Payton Caffrey and another 12 (seven kills, four blocks, one ace) from Adenízia to overcome Minas in straight sets in the Superliga final.

The second-best team in the regular season, Minas had outside hitters Pri Daroit and Hilary Johnson as their leading scorers in the final - each of them registered 11 points.

Adenízia is the Superliga MVP

Praia's captain and the only Olympic champion in their squad, middle blocker Adenízia earned the Superliga's MVP award, being considered the tournament's top player for the first time in her career.

The 39-year-old was one of three Brazilians to form the Superliga's Dream Team, which was dominated by international players. Osasco São Cristovão Saúde's American setter Jenna Gray, Osasco's Argentine opposite Bianca Cugno, Praia's Caffrey, SESC RJ Flamengo's American outside hitter Simone Lee, Minas' middle blocker Júlia Kudiess and Osasco's Camila Brait made the list, alongside Praia's Portuguese coach Rui Moreira.

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