Volleyball Canada – Sept. 10, 2016: Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team – in its first-ever Paralympic match – got a taste of Brazil’s skilled play, and was defeated 3-0 (25-7, 25-12, 25-14) in front of more than 5000 fans at Riocentro Friday evening.

“We knew it was going to be loud, and we’ve played in loud venues before, but we’ve never played in a Brazilian venue,” said Shacarra Orr of Jaffray, British Columbia, who celebrated her 20th birthday yesterday. “I’ve never seen anything like that. …When the music is going the crowd is cheering it’s something we prepared for, but it’s never something you can really understand what it’s going to be like until you’re in it.”
 
In the first set, Brazil’s Nathalie de Lima Silva and Jani Freitas Batista showed their team’s dominance with multiple kills each. Canada struggled with the pace and strength of attack, and found it difficult to get the ball back, losing 25-7.
 
Gizele da Costa Dias distributed the ball well and gave the home team’s hitters great opportunities for kills in the second set. Brazil, ranked fourth in the world and first in this pool, took the set 25-12.
 
Canada came back with better defense in the third set, but it was not enough to overcome Brazil, finally losing the set 25-14. Danielle Ellis scored a great block out in this set and was top scorer with six kills for Canada. Janaina Petit Cunha led Brazil with 14 kills (45% kill ratio) and three aces.
 
“We got Brazil out of the way and we are ready for the Netherlands,” said Chantal Beauchesne (St. Isidore, ON). “We scrimmaged against them back in Edmonton about a month ago and played extremely well. We know their tendencies and we are lot more confident playing against them than we were Brazil, which is a team we don’t really see that often.”

Canada plays the Netherlands on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1 pm Eastern time, which is 2 pm in Brazil. Live streaming is not available during pool play.

(with photos/reports from World ParaVolley and CPC)
 
More on sitting volleyball at Rio 2016 can be found here: www.worldparavolley.org/rio-2016-paralympic-games/

To follow Team Canada at Rio 2016, go to www.paralympic.ca and use the hashtag #ParaTough on social media. 

 

Volleyball Canada media contact:
Jackie Skender
E-mail: jskender@volleyball.ca
Phone: 613.794.7676

Rio Paralympic media attache: Jody Kingsbury + 55 (21) 99032-0444