Brazil upset China to win World GP in Chinese Taipei
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-12 09:30

Brazil upset defending champions and World Cup title holders China 3-1 on Sunday to win the Chinese Taipei leg of the 2004 World Grand Prix women's volleyball tournament in Miaoli, a county about 100 kilometers south to Taipei.

Playing without the 1.96-meter-tall star spiker Zhao Ruirui, who was recovering from a leg injury, China found it hard to stop Dias Virna and Coimbra Erika, who combined for 33 kills for Brazil.

"We played the best match of this leg," said Brazil head coach Jose Guimaraes. "All my players played very well today."

China head coach Chen Zhonghe attributed his team's defeat to bad shape and numerous mistakes. "We were not in shape at all," said Chen, who guided China to the 2003 World Cup championship title with an unbeaten record in Japan. "We made too many mistakes and struggled with our serving and receiving."

Brazil, the runners-up to China at last year's World Cup, started strongly by taking a 6-2 lead in the first set. The Chinese steadily pulled it back at 18-all and went on to a narrow-margined lead at 22-21.

However, a serve error by ace spiker Yang Hao and a stuffed hit by Zhang Ping, who was playing in Zhao's position, handed the advantage back to Brazil and a receiving mistake of libero Zhang Na costed China the opening set 27-25.

China trailed most of the way in the second set before overtaking the lead at 22-20. Then Yang Hao jumped high from backrow for a brilliant hit to pull one set back for the Chinese at 25-23.

Brazil pulled away from half way to take the last two sets with the same score of 25-18.

Liu Ya'nan led China with 16 points, Wang Li'na and Yang Hao added 12 each.

Earlier on Sunday, Germany beat Dominican Republic in straight sets for its first victory and a third finish at the four-team round-robin tournament.

Twelve teams are competing in the first-round preliminaries of the 2004 World Grand Prix, vying for six spots in the finals to be held in Italy. The teams were divided into three groups, with two other groups playing in Bangkok of Thailand and Kawasaki of Japan.

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