Ljubljana, Slovenia, September 16, 2017 – Middle blockers Lays and Mayany scored decisive block winners to lead reigning champions Brazil to a hard-earned 4-0 (18-16, 16-14,15-10, 15-7) win against Thailand in the play off 5 to 8 positions of the 2017 FIVB Women’s U23 World Championship here in Ljubljana on Saturday evening.
All matches in Ljubljana are played under a new scoring system currently being tested: a best-of-seven, 15-point set format.
On Sunday, titleholders Brazil will take on Cuba for a revenge of their 1-4 defeat in the last Pool B match in the battle for the fifth rank while Thailand challenge China in the race for the seventh place.
Edinara scored 14 attacks to top all scorers in the match; then Drussyla, Lays and Mayany contributed eight points apiece for Brazil’s strong match finish. Thailand’s top scorer Thanacha Sooksod, who registered a tournament high and all-time competition record of 32 points on Friday evening, was controlled to score “only” 13 points. Brazil made the main difference with 13-1 blocks.
Thailand started the first two sets with great intensity but eventually could not wrap up the sets in the decisive phases of the match. Brazil’s middle blockers Lays and Mayany ended the Asian firework twice with two remarkable block winners.
The Asians did not recover from the setback while the young Brazilians never looked back until the end of the match. After 62 minutes, Drussyla scored another block kill to offer the reigning champions the chance to battle for the fifth position here in Ljubljana.
Brazil coach Wagner Coppini: “It was very important for us to quickly recover from the losses against Bulgaria and Cuba. I am happy my players regained confidence tonight. Now, we have to reorganize our strategy for tomorrow’s match against Cuba. We watched them today and need to find something different to beat them.”
Brazil captain Drussyla: “Playing Asian teams is always a challenge for us. We worked hard to keep our concentration on the highest level throughout the match. In the duel with Cuba we will have the chance to correct our mistakes and show a better performance.”
Thailand coach Chamnan Dokmai: “We had a very tough match yesterday against the Dominican Republic and my girls haven’t recovered yet. We used all our guns yesterday and we could not keep the pace today.
Thailand captain Tichaya Boonlert: “The match today was totally different than yesterday. We performed very well against the Dominican Republic. We could not take advantage of Brazil’s fragility in the first two sets.”
Related links of AVC
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/
AVC Twitter: click: https://twitter.com/avcvolley
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation