World Grand Prix 2003

Brazil beat China 3-1 (25-22, 17-25, 26-24, 25-18) - duration 1.42
25-Jul, start time: 21.07, end time: 22.49 - Attendance: 560
Brazil ends China’s winning streak
Brazil beat China in four sets here in the Palasassi Hall, Matera on Friday to end the Asian champions winning streak in the preliminary pool B of the 2003 women’s volleyball World Grand Prix.

The result also made pool B wide open with Russia, Brazil, China and South Korea all recording three wins and one loss. With the last round preliminaries to be played on Saturday, all the teams above have a chance to make the top three of the group and advance to the six-team final round.

After splitting the first two sets, Brazil came from behind to win the crucial third set. Trailing by 24-22, the Brazilians ran off four straight points for the victory. China, who had collected three 3-0 victories before Friday’s action, stayed within 17-15 in the fourth before losing eight of the last 11 points to surrender the match.

Brazil head coach Marco Motta thought high quality blocking and defense led the Brazilians to the victory. “We are not afraid of the Chinese team,” Motta said. “Today we did very well in blocking and defense and played better and better through the match.”

China managed an attack percentage of 45%, compared with 50% of Brazil, and 58 of their attempts were blocked by the Brazilians.

Bad blocking, defense and too many errors proved costly for China, according to China head coach Chen Zhonghe. “Our blocking and defense were not successful and we made too many mistakes by ourselves,” Chen said. Brazil reaped 32 points from the Chinese girls’ errors. Chen also admitted that the Chinese girls were not used to the hot weather in Matera. “We were affected a little bit by the weather,” he said. “It is really hot.”