Brazil claims first ticket to Olympic Games

UBERLANDIA, Brazil, August 3, 2019 – Brazil claimed the ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, following their 3-2 (25-22, 25-19, 23-25, 18-25, 15-10) triumph against the Dominican Republic in the Tokyo Volleyball Qualification Pool D tournament in Uberlandia.

Brazil and Dominican Republic both carried the same win-records coming into their encounter on Saturday. The match went down to the wire after Brazil opened with two wins and the Dominican Republic responded with victories in the next two sets. In the final set, both teams raced to the end, with Brazil gaining better edge from the performance of their attackers.

Lorenne Geraldo Teixeira and Gabi Guimaraes led the way for the South American Team in the five-set thriller scoring 22 and 18 points, respectively, while Brayelin Martinez and Bethania De La Cruz made 20 and 15 points for the Dominican Republic.  

In the other match of the closing day in Uberlandia, Yelyzaveta Samadova scored 13 points in leading Azerbaijan to a 3-0 (25-17, 25-14, 25-20) sweep of Cameroon. 

In Pool B in Ningbo, China, Turkey and host China advanced to a do-or-die clash after scoring 3-1 victories over Czech Republic (25-15, 25-22, 21-25, 25-17) and Germany (25-22, 25-22, 21-25, 25-15), respectively.