Gabi leads her team to a fabulous comeback from two sets down to a spot in the semis
Brazil mastered an incredible return from two sets down to defeat Japan in Tuesday’s quarterfinal match at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 in the Netherlands. The South Americans persevered through five tough sets to claim a 3-2 (18-25, 18-25, 25-22, 27-25, 15-13) victory at the Omnisport in Apeldoorn and advance to the semifinals for the sixth time in the history of volleyball’s premier competition. On Thursday, they will take on Italy for one of the spots in Saturday’s gold medal match.
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Brazilian captain and outside hitter Gabriela Guimaraes led the match scorers with 25 points, all in attack at a success rate of 50%. On the Japanese side, opposite Kotona Hayashi made 21 points, including two aces, while middle blocker Nichika Yamada raised seven of the team’s nine kill blocks towards a total tally of 19 points.
Japan started putting pressure on the opponents right from the start of the first set and quickly pulled away with a 4-1 lead. An ace by outside Mayu Ishikawa for 9-5 was followed by another powerful serve that forced an overpass, killed by middle Haruyo Shimamura for 10-5. Two back-to-back aces by opposite Tainara Santos brought Brazil back to within three at 13-10, but Japan reacted with a three-point run, crowned by an overpass kill from Yamada for 16-10. As the Asian team continued to dominate on the court, Ishikawa produced her second ace of the set for 21-16. In the final touches, Hayashi brought in set point with a block-out hit for 24-17 and converted it with a cross-court swing for 25-18.
Spiking successfully from the three different positions in the front row, Japan swiftly jumped into a 3-0 lead in the second set. Brazil managed to catch up at 5-5 on another ace by Tainara, but that was the last time in the set the score was level. The Asian side scored the next three points and never looked back. Ishikawa put in another ace to widen the gap to four points at 12-8 and set off a further Japanese surge. Playing like a fine-tuned machine and taking advantage of the many Brazilian errors, they were in complete control through the rest of the set. Hayashi delivered the set point with a swing and it was immediately converted to a 25-18 win with a monster block by Yamada.
After a competitive point-for-point…
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