Eboli, Italy, June 13, 2018 – Rosamaria Montibeller kept her cool throughout her team’s FIVB Volleyball Nations League match against Thailand to power Brazil to a 3-1 (25-16, 25-22, 18-25, 25-13) victory, despite falling into some difficult patches on sets 2 and 3.
Rosa Maria became the top scorer of the game as she contributed 18 points, including three aces and one stuff block to her side’s success.
Tandara Caixeta, who was not on the court during the last set, supported her with another 14 points, while the two middle blockers, Ana Beatriz Correa and Ana Carolina Da Silva, also dipped into the double digits with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Thailand’s coach Danai Sriwacharamaytakul made some successful changes during the course of the match as his squad put on a brave effort to keep the game interesting in the second and the third sets. Hattaya Bamrungsuk was his best point-maker, scoring 14 times for the Asian side.
The South Americans, who had already secured their spot in the VNL finals, clearly dominated sets 1 and 4. In the second set they survived a late scare, but got solidly outplayed by a valiant Thai team in the third. Brazil registered their 18th win out of 19 world-level matches against Thailand.
Rosa Maria made the point-winning spike in the very first rally of the match to get Brazil going. Right after Thailand had come back from a four-point deficit in the second set to draw level at 22-22, the 24-year-old outside hitter spiked one off the block to restore the Brazilian lead and then aced from the serving line to put her team at set point, which was converted with a kill block.
In the third set, Rosa Maria scored exactly half of Brazil’s 18 points, labouring away in an effort the stop the Thai comeback. When the match went into a fourth set, she made sure it would not be extended any further. She put the ball on the floor to give Brazil a 4-3 lead. Two rotations later, she started her serving duty with an ace, later including one more into a series of seven unanswered points, which practically pre-decided the outcome of the match.