Brazil managed their first win of Volleyball Nations League 2023. With 19–year-old outside hitter Ana Cristina de Souza leading the way, the South Americans delivered a shutout of the Netherlands in Thursday’s last Pool 2 match in Nagoya. It was the second defeat for the Dutch, after they lost to Germany in the opening game.

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Ana Cristina was the best scorer of the match. She spiked at a 59% success rate and added two kill blocks and an ace towards the match high of 23 points, including the game winner. Her cross-court teammate Julia Bergmann added another 13 points, while opposite Elles Dambrink was the Netherlands’ most productive player with 12.

Ana Cristina led the way with seven points in attack as Brazil recovered from a three-point deficit twice in the first set and eventually finished the set with three in a row for 25-23. The Netherlands stormed the second set on a 3-0 run, but the South Americans reacted swiftly to take control. However, they wasted a five-point lead and the score was once again level at 23-23. Ana Cristina put away her ninth point of the set to bring in set point and Bergmann converted it to another 25-23 close. Brazil prevailed in set three as well. At 2-2 was the last time the score was level. The South Americans broke away and pushed on to close the match at 25-21 with another Ana Cristina hammer for the winning point.

“We are still trying to find each other. We haven’t been practicing for that long, so in every game we have to find new ways to play better together,” Bergmann commented after the match. “We know that we are going to make mistakes. We know that it’s hard at the beginning... It’s only our second game, but it was already better than yesterday. Ana Cristina had a great game, but everyone was playing together and it was a team win for sure.”

Brazil will be on the court in Nagoya again on Saturday for a match against Dominican Republic, while the Netherlands will meet the Caribbean team on Friday.

In the previous match in Nagoya, Dominican Republic managed to come back from a set down twice in their encounter with Bulgaria to claim their first victory of the season, . Dominican outside Brayelin Martinez was the best scorer of the game with 25 points to her name, including two kill blocks. Opposite Gaila Gonzalez added another 19 points towards the victory, while Elena Becheva was Bulgaria’s most prolific player with 17 points.

Earlier in the day, Germany took their second win by handing Croatia their second loss. The all-European clash ended 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-23) in favour of coach Vital Heynen’s team. German outside Hanna Orthmann delivered the match high of 23 points, including three of the team’s 10 aces. On Croatia’s side, opposite Andrea Mihaljevic was the only one to reach the double digits with 18 points.

The third competition day continues with action in the other pool, played in Antalya. Canada are up against Thailand at 14:00 local time (11:00 UTC). Poland will take on defending champions Italy at 17:00 (14:00). Finally, hosts Türkiye will close the day with a game against world champions Serbia at 20:00 (17:00).

Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results

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