Brazil upset hosts China 3-1 in women's volleyball Grand Prix finals

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Brazil had 17 successful blocks while China had only eight. Menezes Thaisa and Castro Sheilla scored 18 points each to lead the game, Claudino Fabiana added 14.

The top scorer of China is Hui Ruoqi, who contributed 13 points, including 11 kills and two ace¹ serves.

The Brazilians, gold medallist of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, jumped to an 8-3 lead in the opening stage, forcing China headcoach Yu Juemin to call time-out twice in less than 10 minutes.

When the game resumed², Hui led the Chinese team to fight back with a 4-1 run to level the game at 12-all.

But Brazil soon got the upper hand back with their solid defense³ and maintained⁴ the narrow lead to 21-16. Sheilla's kills from the right side of the net moved Brazil to the set point.

The two teams played more consistently⁵ in the second set where China established an early lead 10-6 after a 4-0 run led by middle blocker Xu Yunli.

Zhang Lei helped hold the lead with a couple of shots and a good block as the Chinese team pushed the game to 15-10. Brazil tried to cut the deficit⁶ at 21-23 but Fan Linlin's kill gave China the set point and an out-of-court shot from Brazil player allowed China to claw one set back at 25-21.

China fought hard early in the third set and managed to stay up at 7-5, but Brazil soon answered with a 3-0 run to lead into the first TTO at 8-7. The firm blocks from Brazil helped them extend⁷ the lead to 16-10 as Fabiana and Sheilla combined to stop China's attack several times over the net. At 24-17, Thaisa again refused a spike⁸ from Hui to put Brazil ahead in sets again.

The Brazilian women started strongly against the hosts, racing⁹ to an 6-0 lead in the fourth and improved it to 16-7 at the second TTO. China made some substitutions as Chu Jinlin came off the bench to score three points in a row to help China pull with 11-16.

But Brazil cruised¹⁰ to victory at 25-18 by running off four of the last six points and sealed the match in one hour 39 minutes.

After the match, Yu said that the opposite hitter Zeng Chunlei's absence left the Chinese team a large gap¹¹ on court.

"Today our receiving was not stable, and because one of our right-wing attackers was injured before the match, we had to rely heavily on the left-side attacking. Unfortunately, Brazil knew that clearly and found the way to deal with it," said Yu.

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