Lincoln, USA, June 6, 2019 - Gabriela 'Gabi' Guimaraes was the driving force of Brazil that brought down USA in front of their home crowd in Nebraska with a 3-1 (25-19, 25-17, 22-25, 25-20) win at the very end of Week 3 in the 2019 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League.
The 25-year-old outside hitter had another field day, scoring 26 points with an excellent 65% attacking efficiency. Captain Natalia Pereira was back on the starting lineup, but again only played in the first set, before being substituted for Amanda Francisco.
On the other side of the net, Andrea Drews with 19 points and Dana Rettke with a great match and 17 dealt with the scoring, but that brought USA no nowhere near to a win.
Brazil's victory brings the South American powerhouse to within the qualifying zone for the Final Six of the VNL (3-7 July in Nanjing).
But after only their second defeat of the season, USA dropped to 7-2 allowing Turkey to enjoy solitude at the top of the table on 8-1. The Balkan side had previously completed their obligations in Week 3 with three straight wins in Bangkok.
And when the VNL reconvenes in a week's time, fans in Jiangmen will get to watch four of the top five teams in the standings: Turkey, USA, China and Poland.
Week 3 provided some thrilling action across the board, including some high-scoring performances by Italy's Paola Egonu (40 points against China, 2-3), the Dominican Republic's Brayelin Martinez (36 against Thailand, 3-2), Poland's Malwina Smarzek (33 against Russia, 3-2) and Germany's Louisa Lippmann (30 against Brazil, 3-2).
Quick links - Volleyball:
FIVB.com - Volleyball Nations League
FIVB.com - Volleyball
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