MATCH INFO

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 9, 2011 – Defending champions Brazil will have the opportunity of finishing the 2011 FIVB Men´s Junior World Championship among the top five teams as the home boys defeated Spain 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-20 and 25-16) on Tuesday evening at Maracanazinho Gymnasium, in Rio de Janeiro.

 

With the win, Brazil advanced to play the 5th place match against Iran on Wednesday, at 11:00 a.m., while Spain will clash India for the 7th place in the opening match of the last day, scheduled to start at 9 a.m.

Brazilian outside hitter Ricardo Lucarelli topped the scorers with 18 points and was helped by the good performance of teammate Bernardo Reitz, who scored 10. Despite the defeat, Spanish Francisco Ruiz and Jorge Almansa helped their team with 14 points each.

Spain had an early 8-6 lead in the first technical timeout of the match, but Brazil managed to react and achieved a 16-12 lead in the second stop, following two spike points of Lucarelli and a pair of mistakes of Spanish outside hitter David Sanllehi. Staying ahead until the end, the host team finished the frame with a backcourt spike of opposite Rafael Martins: 25-20.

Brazil took a 9-7 lead in the second set behind a serve point of Rafael (9-7), but Spain took advantage of the host mistakes to reverse it and score 14-9 with a block of Pablo Bugallo. Brazilian captain Otavio Pinto scored a block point to reduce the difference to two points in 14-12, but Spanish star Ruiz stopped Brazilian scorer Lucarelli to keep a safe lead in 19-14. With Bugallo closing the net, the European ended the set 25-18.

With Ruiz in the serve line, Spain scored the first three points of the third set, but Brazil managed to reverse it 7-6 with a good run of Otavio in the service. Taking advantage of a Spanish bad reception, opposite Luan Weber spiked to improve the hosts lead to 12-9. After some Spanish mistakes in the end, Brazil scored 25-20 with Almansa hitting in the net.

Spain opened the fourth set with 4-1, but Brazil worked to take the lead 10-8 with a serve point of Bernardo. In the middle of the set, the host advantage improved to 16-11 with Lucarelli spiking. In the end, Luan spiked to close the match 25-16.