Carolina Albuquerque of Brazil goes up for the ball as Danielle Scott of the U.S. looks on.
USA
vs
Brazil
0
-
3
Kobe, Japan, November 4, 2006 -- In a battle of the two unbeaten teams in Pool C on Saturday, Brazil came out on top with a convincing 3-0 victory over rivals the United States.
Brazil looked comfortable throughout as they polished off the Americans 25-23, 25-21, 25-13 at Kobe's Green Arena.
The Americans held the Brazilians off in the early stages thanks to some excellent blocking, but then the South Americans were sparked into action by a big Jaqueline Carvalho spike and a couple of U.S. errors, allowing Brazil to take an 8-6 lead into the first technical timeout.
More U.S. errors allowed the Brazilians to increase their lead to 16-12 at the second TTO with Brazil's Sheilla Castro finding good early spiking form.
The Americans closed the gap as they started to hold off Castro's big strikes with some outstanding defense, but with the scores at 23-23, Marianne Steinbrecher's fine crosscourt spike gave the Brazilians setpoint.
Quick-thinking in the form of a first-time tipover by Carvalho after a long service reception by the Americans then wrapped up the set.
The U.S. quickly fought back at the beginning of the second set with more inspired defense and a couple of big errors from Welissa Gonzaga and Carvalho.
The U.S. pulled away to 12-8 but the introduction of Brazil's ailing captain Fafao steadied the Brazilian ship.
Big spikes from Carvalho and good work by Gonzaga, as well as a strong serving spell by the same player, reversed the flow of the game and the Americans soon found themselves 13-17 down.
Gonzaga and Castro then steered Brazil to safety and a 2-0 set lead.
Gonzaga and Castro delivered a couple of monster spikes early in the third set, but the Americans were dogged in defense and only trailed by one point at the first TTO.
That doubled to two after a thumping serve from Gonzaga and from that point on, the Brazilians were able to stretch their lead to 16-9 at the second TTO after the Americans started to get sloppy and had trouble dealing with Castro's serves.
From then on, it was largely one-way traffic. Brazil captain Fafao's service into space gave her team matchpoint and Castro finished things off with another fine spike to the delight of their many and noisy supporters.
