Tandara Caixeta(top) of Brazil spikes the ball during the final match of the FIVB World Grand Prix 2017 Finals against Italy in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, Aug. 6, 2017. (Xinhua/Yang Lei)
NANJING, China, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Brazil claimed their 12th title in the FIVB Grand Prix Finals by beating Italy 3-2 in the gold medal match which was held at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on Sunday.
Tandara Caixeta and Natalia Pereira each had a 22-point output in the 26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 22-25, 15-8 victory, where they led the charge especially in the comeback set-wins. Italy's Paola Egonu led all scorers with 29 points and Caterina Bosetti added 17 markers. Brazil made a huge effort on defence as they mounted 15 blocks against the Italy's nine.
Both teams made split victories in the first four sets, forcing the match into a tie-breaker. Too many errors caused the Italians the match as they committed 31 errors while Brazil had 22.
The South Americans led throughout the final set until Lucia Bosetti's service error give the set and match victory to the opponents at 15-8.
Early on Sunday, star spiker Tijana Boskovic scored 31 points to lead Serbia to a 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21 win over hosts China in the bronze medal play-off.
Boskovic recorded 25 attacks, two blocks and four aces to top all scorers in the match. Brankica Mihajlovic and Jovana Stevanovic also scored in double-figures with 18 and 11 points respectively.
The Chinese team benefit from 33 errors made by Serbia, but the Serbian team had a more brilliant performance on the net as they scored 58 points by spikes and 11 aces, China had 46 and 3 respectively.
