Thaisa, who missed last year's World Grand Prix due to knee surgery, was the top scorer of the match with 19 points
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 10, 2016 – Brazil welcomed back towering Thaisa, as she scored 19 points to defeat Japan 3-0 (25-20, 25-23, 25-15) on Friday to earn their second victory of the FIVB World Grand Prix 2016.
Last year, Brazil had to deal without the massive presence of their solid centre, who underwent surgery on both knees and was away from the team for five months.And the 29-year-old, who sat out Thursday's opening win against Italy, made the perfect return.
Although she is six centremetres shorter than this year's World Grand Prix's tallest in Polanska (POL), Malygina and Gamova (RUS) and Diouf (ITA), Thaisa is the tallest in the Brazilian lineup at 1.96m and definitely much tallest than Japan's middle blocker in Erika Araki, who at 1.86m is Japan's
tallest player.
On this occasion, Araki only played part of the second set, so Thaisa had the net to herself and she made the most of it.
Brazil went into the game with a 24 game winning streak over Japan, dating back to 2010 and the South American side were keen to continue their dominance over their Asian opponents, who snapped a five game losing streak in their first pool match with Serbia.
Brazil started the game with more impetus than yesterday but a strong defensive show from Japan showed they would be no pushovers. The two Brazilian middle-blockers, Juciely and Thaisa were key players during the first set, combining to score 13 points to edge Brazil into a 1-0 lead in the match with a 25-20 win in the opening set.
The Brazilian duo were once again the main obstacles to the Japanese in the second set and Japan's setter Kanami Tashiro, sped up their game to help curb the Brazilian attack and take a lead in the set. The debutant Menezes, continued her great start to the match and combined with Juciely and Fernanda as they hit back to take the set 25-23.
With an outstanding start to the third set, the Brazilians opened up an 8-2 lead by the first technical time-out to take the game away from Japan. Yukiko Ebata and Mami Uchiseto tried to keep the Japanese side in the game up, but tonight was Thaisa's night as she inspired Brazil to a 25-15 victory to set up a straight sets victory.