Gabi leads Brazil to seventh VNL win

June 30, 2022 World Sports

Brazil’s outside hitter and captain Gabriela Guimaraes powered her team on the way to a seventh win in the women’s Volleyball Nations League 2022 on Tuesday. The South Americans opened the third week of competition with a 3-2 (25-20, 25-23, 18-25, 21-25, 15-11) victory over China in Sofia to improve to a 7-2 win-loss record and 20 points, and are currently third. It was also the third consecutive defeat for the Asian powerhouse. They are now on 5-4 and 17 points in fifth place. Gabi scored 21 points in the first two sets alone to help Brazil open a two-set lead. Through the end of the match, she reached a total of 28. Opposite Kisy Nascimento took over as the leading point maker in sets three and four, when Brazil’s abundant unforced errors kept China alive to push the match to five. Kisy finished the match on 24 points.

Middle blocker Ana Carolina Da Silva owned the court in the tie-breaker to bring her total to 15 points, including an ace and as many as five kill blocks. Her VNL total of 45 stuffs so far puts her 16 clear at the top of the best blockers’ chart.