NINGBO, East China, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Defending champions Brazil rebounded from the shock defeat by Japan on the first day to beat Poland 3-1 (25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17) here on Thursday in the FIVB Grand Prix Final Round.
The world No. 1 Brazil were stunned by Japan 3-2 on Wednesday, the opening day of the Grand Prix Finals.
Brazil swept past Poland, who are making their second appearance in the World GP finals, to claim their first victory in the six-team round-robin competition.
"Two weeks we played a match against Brazil. It was much worse than today," said Jerzy Matlak, head coach of Poland. "We've made progress, but we still have a lot to do. I hope in the following days we would be better."
Sheilla Castro topped the scorers for Brazil with 20 points, including 15 spikes and three blocks. Fabiana Claudino added 15 points and Jaqueline Carvalho contributed 16 points.
Brazil made an early lead in the opening set by 8-4, but Poland came back to pull within one point at 8-7. The excellent spikes and blocks by Fabiana, combined with a string of errors by Poland, secured the leading position for Brazil at 16-11. The dogged Polish side then showed resilience to equalize at 20-20, but Brazil held their nerves to seal the set.
The second set remained tight with Poland taking a slight lead at 8-7. Brazil answered with their vigorous attacks, but they were unable to catch up due to a sharp increase in errors. When the score was locked at 23-23, Agnieszka Bednarek-Kasza delivered a spike from the right and followed up with a superb block to give Poland the last two points.
Tied at 1-1, Brazilians were hot in attacking in the following sets, they proved too much for Poland as the star trio of Sheilla, Fabiana and Jaqueline dominated the net. Jaqueline jumped high from the left flank to smash a spiking winner to help Brazil won the third set 25-20.
After setting up a 11-6 lead in the fourth, Brazil never looked back and locked the victory with 25-17.
Baranska Anna contributed 19 points for Poland, while Skowronska-Dolata Katarzyna and Kosek Karolina each added 11. Gajgal Katarzyna had 10.
"Today we played a lot better than yesterday," said Jose Roberto Guimaraes, headcoach of Brazil, "Poland had some really good hitters and setters. We hope to keep the momentum up in the following matches."
Brazil, who is striving for their ninth title of the Grand Prix, will play against the United States on Friday.
