Macau, China, June 18, 2016 – Brazil taps a 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 25-18 victory over Belgium on the second day of World Grand Prix in Macau. Juciely Barreto's 19 points with 6 kill blocks and Sheilla’s 17 kills and 2 aces led Brazil to fourth ever victory against Yellow Tigers in the competition.
Brazil fulfilled its plan of a rebound after a loss to Serbia on the first day in Macau. Olympic champions have won all of the four matches against Belgium, with today's lost set being the only one ever. Both teams have only been playing against each other recently, including last year's edition of the World Grand Prix. On Brazil's side both Juciely Barreto and Sheilla Castro scored 19 points for their team, but impressive six kill blocks of Juciely make her stand out among her teammates. Lise Van Hecke proved to be her team's leader yet again, scoring 16 points. Belgium takes on Serbia tomorrow in the early match while Brazil plays China to close out Group D play.
The Belgian side started strong after yesterday’s loss to China and led Brazil by two at the first technical time out. Brazil did grab the lead back at 12-11 but the Belgians were not to be outdone and battled back with some excellent blocking to lead 16-14 at the second technical timeout. It was a back and forth battle until Juciely made a terrific block to give Brazil the lead at 22-20. Belgium wasn’t done and used its excellent defense to score five of the next six points to take the set 25-23.
Brazil performed better in set two, taking an early 14-8 lead. Danielle Lins did a great job of distributing the ball and this kept the Belgian block off-balance for much of the set. Belgium fought back to within three at one point but never got closer as Brazil took set two 25-19.
It was Brazil’s turn to show some dominant blocking as Juciely and Sheilla made consecutive blocks to help their side to an early 6-2 lead. This forced a time out by Belgium but Brazil stayed in control and extended their lead to ten points at 14-4. Brazil maintained its big lead the rest of the way and closed out the set 25-15.
Brazil continued to roll in set four and jumped out to a 4-0 lead, forcing another early time out from their opponents. Trailing by six, it was Lise Van Hecke who made a great back-row kill to bring her team to within three points. Belgium continued to battle and eventually trailed by only one point. But it was Brazil who had the lead at the second technical time out 16-13. Brazil maintained at least a three-point lead throughout and took the final set 25-18.
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