Press release

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 7, 2011 – India played the role of spoiler by upsetting  two-defending champions Brazil in a nail-biting five-set thriller that left the home team out of the contention for the medals in the 2011 FIVB Men's Junior World Championship. The Asian team prevailed in the marathon match played at Maracanazinho Gymnasium of Rio de Janeiro by score of 36-34, 22-25, 21-25, 25-17, 16-14. The outcome earned Serbia the second place in Pool F.

Serbia will face unbeaten Russia, first of group E, in the semifinal, with the other duel reuniting winner of Pool E Argentina and second best team of group F, the United States. The matches will be played next Tuesday at Maracanazinho Gymasium.

In the first matches that will determine 5th to 8th places, also at Maracanazinho, the meetings will be Brazil versus Spain and India versus Iran.

Indian outside hitter Christopher John topped the scorers with 23 points, with Katariya Lavmeet and Dhanabalan Selvaprabhu scoring 13 and 11. In the Brazilian side, Lucas Loh (20), Rafael Martins (18) and Ricardo Lucarelli (16) were the most effective players.

Needing the victory to qualify, Brazil started the match in a good rhythm and scored 7-5 with captain Otavio Pinto winning a ball dispute in the net. When Lucarelli blocked Selvaprabhu to score 10-6, Indian head coach M.H. Kumara called a time-out. Step by step, the Indian team recovered, led by John, until tying the set in the 22th point after a wrong spike of Lucarelli. With the teams changing points for a long time, Rafael spiked out to give India the 36-34 win.

Led by Rafael, Brazil scored 4-2 and, with the opposite in the line, managed to improve it to 11-5 with Otavio taking advantage of an Indian wrong reception. The lead improved to 15-7 in the middle of the frame, but India reacted to reduce it 16-14 with G.R. Vaishnav dominating the net. In the end, Brazil scored some points in a row before closing the set with Bernardo Reitz spiking to make 25-22.

India scored the first points of the third partial, but Brazil managed to tie it 11-11 with captain Otavio spiking and assured an 18-15 lead through Rafael. With unstoppable John, the Indian came from behind to reverse 19-18 after a block of Vaishnav. Overcoming the nervousness, Brazilian blocked to score 22-19 and the hosts closed 25-21 with a second ball of setter Vitor Dias.

With John in the lead, the Asian started ahead also the fourth frame, scoring 7-3. With difficulties in playing behind in the scoreboard, Brazil made several mistakes and helped India to go to the second technical timeout with a 16-9 lead after a block of Vaishnav. With the score 18-12 to their favor, India lost John with an ankle injury, but barely felt its main player's  absence. Keeping the lead, the Asian ended the frame 25-17 following a wrong Brazilian serve.

With star Lucarelli back in the court, Brazil started bad the deciding set and allowed India do score 6-3. Playing with passion, the defending champion reacted and tied in the 10th point following a fault of Indian setter Singh Ranjit. After some mistakes of the Brazilian side, India scored 13-11, before winning it 16-14 with a block point.