Ankara, Turkey, May 24, 2018 - Adenizia Da Silva and Amanda Francisco produced majestic performances to inspire Brazil to a fifth successive women's FIVB Volleyball Nations League win after they crushed the Dominican Republic in straight sets 3-0 (25-20, 25-10, 25-13) in Ankara.
Brazil, who recalled top scorer Tandara Caixeta after she was rested against Argentina on Wednesday, mixed potent, fluid attacking with added steel in defence, typified by the outstanding blocking display of Adenizia, as they had far too much class for the Caribbean nation, who were outplayed in every department as they slumped to a sixth defeat in six Volleyball Nations League matches. Brazil's victory means they move to within one point of pacesetters USA, and this display will serve as a warning to the rest of the tournament's frontrunners.
Amanda top-scored for Brazil with 14 points as she added accurate serving to her finishing ability, but there's far more to the South Americans than all-out attack. Their rigid defence and superb blocking - led by the impenetrable Adenizia - frustrated the Dominican Republic time and time again. Ana Beatriz and skipper Roberta Silva also produced performances full of craft and ingenuity as Brazil oozed class throughout.
Brayelin Martinez was the Dominican Republic's top scorer for their fifth Volleyball Nations League match out of six in the inaugural competition; she chalked up nine points but was snuffed out on numerous occasions by Brazil's blockers, and could only land seven of her 25 attempted spikes. Yonkaira Pena Isabel (6 points) and Annerys Valdez (5 points) were their other top scorers, but the Caribbeans were erratic and error-strewn, with their serving letting them down again.
Brazil were sluggish in the opening set and found themselves 3-0 down with Martinez and Pena Isabel both registering early spikes. But Jose Roberto Guimaraes' women soon found their rhythm and a couple of brilliant blocks - first through Beatriz and then Amanda - had the South American champions 8-6 in front at the first technical time out. The Queens of the Caribbean looked dangerous, but their achilles heel - poor serving and wayward spikes - returned again with Pena Isabel guilty of a bad miss to put Brazil 11-10 in front. And the favourites stepped up a few gears to move into a six-point lead at 22-16 before Tandara, who had a fairly quiet game, closed out the set (25-20) with Brazil comfortable without really impressing.
But the 2017 FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix winners were far more enterprising in the second set and blew their opponents away with some wonderful volleyball. Tandara was far more influential than in the opening set and her spike made it 7-5 to Brazil, but Adenizia's outstanding blocking was the theme of the set with Marcos Kwiek's side unable to find a way through her and her partner in crime Beatriz. Brazil were 10 points clear at the second technical time out and they piled on more misery by blitzing clear to win the set 25-10 and move two sets clear with only 57 minutes on the clock. Brazil earned five block points in the second set alone as they thoroughly outclassed their opponents.
Dominican Republic had never beaten Brazil before in their previous 18 meetings - with their five-set loss in the 2008 World Grand Prix the closest they have come, and they never looked like erasing that record in this match. Martinez's brilliant block put Kwiek's side to within two points at 5-3 behind, but the top scorer inexplicably launched her resulting serve into the net to immediately hand the initiative back to the South Americans. Brazil were on a roll, and aided by the immaculate serving of Amanda, they scored 9 straight points to move into a 15-6 lead with Dominican Republic making errors by the bucketload. The third set was a procession and some more incredible blocking - this time by replacement Carol - kept the scoreboard ticking as Brazil strolled over the line (25-13). The South Americans won 14 block points alone - seven coming from Adenizia - whilst they produced arguably the best serving display so far in the Volleyball Nations League. Their three-game tour of Ankara ends in three convincing wins, and they head to the Netherlands in buoyant mood for week 3 matches against the Dutch, South Korea and Poland.