Chinese outside spiker Zhu Ting hugs setter Wei Qiuyue after they won 3-2 against Brazil
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 16, 2016 – China posted a huge upset, as they ended Brazil’s Olympic reign with a 3-2 (15-25, 25-23, 25-22, 22-25, 15-13) win in the women’s quarterfinals of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at Maracanazinho on Tuesday.
China are back in the top four of the Olympic Games, after they failed to make it to the top four in London 2012. They won the gold in Athens 2004 and bronze in Beijing 2008.
China will face the Netherlands in the semifinals on August 18 at 22:15 local time, which is after the match of Serbia and the United States at 13:00.
Chinese outside spiker Zhu Ting played an amazing performance with 28 points, including 26 attacks and two blocks, while Fernanda Rodrigues (Fe Garay) top scored for Brazil with 24 points.
Brazil began the match with strong intensity that silenced the Chinese offence. The hosts jumped to an 8-2 lead, as Sheilla took advantage of their rivals’ reception. They extended their lead further to 17-9 with Thaisa Menezes, Natalia Pereira and Fe Garay’s involvement on the attack and net defence. Brazil easily closed the set 25-15.
China played with better energy in the second and third sets, as Wei Qiyue did an excellent job in dishing out great sets to Zhu and Zhang Changning. Wei changed the tempo of the Chinese attack that made it comfortable for Zhu to find the open spot. China raced to the end of the second set on Zhu’s spike and block kill 25-23. In the third set, Zhu led again on the offensive, while her team-mates hustled on defence. China took the third set 25-22.
China led in the latter part of the fourth set, but Juciely Baretto scored on a crucial attack and block that shifted the momentum back to Brazilian side. Brazil benefitted from China’s service mistakes to gain the lead, then Natalia and Sheilla finished it off to force a tie-breaker 25-22.
Both sides felt the pressure in the final set, which resulted to a close score. With a series of deadlocks and lead changes, Natalia’s backrow hit cut down the Chinese lead to one point at 12-11. However, Juciely and Sheilla committed crucial service errors that gave China some cushion. Zhu Ting scored the final attack point 15-13.
Quick links - Women's Quarterfinals - Tuesday, August 16: