The Brazilian women’s volleyball team won silver at the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, where Paulo Coco, assistant to coach José Roberto Guimarães, led an alternative group, made up of many young athletes and without the main stars of the country. The vice-champion was decided this Thursday (26/10), with a 3-0 defeat against the Dominican Republic, which played with its A team, made up of emblematic athletes like Bethania de la Cruz and Brenda Castillo.

It was the second Pan title followed by the Dominicans.

The partials were 24/26, 16/25 and 19/25. In a very difficult match, in which the Brazilians showed good signs at the start, before being dominated, Brazil’s top scorer was Sabrina, with 14 points, followed by Lorena, who scored eight. On the other side, Yonkaira Peña, with 13, scored the most.

Despite a few errors, Brazil had a good start to the first set and maintained their consistency for most of the period. After overcoming a 10-9 deficit, they improved and managed to maintain a positive three-point difference for a while. However, when they won 17-14, they began to open the way for the Dominicans to come back. Errors in the set and on serve were costly, and the opponents grew in confidence, until they looked for a comeback to close the set at 26/24.

In the second set the Brazilians were less competitive, no wonder it took them a while to regain a point, which only happened when they turned a 9/1 deficit into 9/2. Even after Brazil started scoring more, the Dominican Republic remained superior, reaching a nine-point lead and facing no major drama to finish at 16/25.

The team led by Paulo Coco could no longer find its place in the match. Although he had some flashes throughout the third set, he was unable to make up the difference when the opportunity presented itself. Thus, the final partial ended on 26/24 and gave gold to the Dominicans.

Beach volleyball

Brazil will also fight for the gold medal in beach volleyball at Pan de Santiago, both in men and women. Duda and Ana Patrícia beat the Americans Quiggle and Murphy by 2 sets to 0 (11/21 and 18/21) and will play the final this Friday, against the Canadian duo formed by Melissa and Brandie, from 6 p.m. André and George beat the Grimalt brothers, from Chile, 2-0 (13/21 and 17/21) and will face the Cubans Diaz and Alayo, also this Friday, at 7 p.m.

Soccer

In football, Brazil is assured of the semi-final. Thanks to goals from Gabriel Pirani, Santos midfielder on loan to DC United (USA), and Guilherme Biro, Corinthians promise, the under-23 team led by Ramon Menezes beat Colombia 2-0 and is qualified with one round in advance. For the moment, they are leading Group B, with six points, but, to confirm their leadership at the end of the group stage, they will face Honduras again, Sunday at 6 p.m. (29/10).

Tennis

The day was also good for Brazilian athletes in tennis competitions, as all the country’s tennis players who took the court advanced to the next stage. Luisa Stefani qualified for the semi-finals of the women’s doubles, alongside Laura Pigossi, with whom she was a medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, and the mixed doubles, with Marcelo Demoliner. Pigossi and Carolina Meligeni reached the singles quarterfinals, as did Gustavo Heide and Thiago Monteiro on the men’s side, who will have Demoliner and Heidi in the doubles semifinals.