Brazil gain ground with second win in Nagoya

Brazil climbed to the second place in the current Volleyball Nations League 2023 standings after a victory over Dominican Republic in a Pool 2 game in Nagoya on Saturday. On a 2-1 win-loss record and seven points, the South Americans are just below unbeaten leaders Poland in the table. The team from the Caribbean finished their Nagoya campaign on 2-2 and four points.

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Dominican opposite Gaila Gonzalez was the best scorer of the match. She fuelled her team’s battle against the mighty opponents with 22 points, including three blocks and an ace. Overall, the Dominicans outblocked Brazil by 14 to 11, with the Martinez sisters (Jineiry with four and Brayelin with three) delivering seven of these stuffs between them. Outside hitter Ana Cristina de Souza was again Brazil’s leading scorer, putting away 16 points towards the victory.

Dominican Republic recovered from the four-point deficit they had at 16-12 and gradually levelled the score at 23-23 to prompt an exciting epilogue. On Brazil’s third set point, Ana Cristina fired a block-out shot for the ninth point on her tally and the last one in the first set – 27-25. After 8-8 in the second set, the Dominicans took control of the scoreboard for good. Jineiry Martinez dominated over the net and, finally, she crowned a series of three Dominican points with a monster block, here third for the set, to level the match at 25-20.

The South Americans had the lead, sometimes as wide as four points, for the most part of the third set, but their opponents kept fighting. At 18-18 was the last time the score was level in this set. Brazil broke away again and, at their first set point, libero Natalia Araujo practically scored the 25-21 winner after the opposition failed to handle the ball she sent over with a spectacular dig. In set four, Dominican Republic were once again competitive enough to recover from the seven-point lag they had at 18-11. In the money time, Brazil even had to deny two Dominican set points before converting their first match point to a 27-25 win on a block-out kill by opposite Lorrayna Da Silva.

“It was amazing! The other team fought so well, and we know that to play against Dominicana is difficult for us, because we know each other very well. They are so strong and, of course, it would be a tough game,” Brazil’s middle blocker Ana Carolina Da Silva said. “We know that we can stop them by defence, good positioning and blocking, step by step. That’s what we did to be able to take the victory. Of course, we are so happy that we won this game, but it’s already in the past. We keep going...”

Brazil will finish its Nagoya campaign on Sunday with a game against winless rookies Croatia, while the Dominicans’ next VNL game will be in 10 days, on June 13, against currently undefeated Poland in a Pool 3 encounter in Hong Kong, China.

The remaining game schedule on June 3 includes two more games in Nagoya: China against the Netherlands at 15:40 local time (6:40 UTC) and Bulgaria against Japan at 19:10 (10:10). The Pool 1 programme over in Antalya includes the matches between Poland and Serbia at 14:00 local (11:00 UTC), between United States and Korea at 17:00 (14:00) and between hosts Türkiye and defending VNL champions Italy at 20:00 (17:00).

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

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