Hamamatsu, Japan, September 29, 2018 - Brazil rolled past Puerto Rico 3-0 (27-25, 25-12, 25-7) in their opening match of Pool D at the FIVB Women's World Championship on Saturday afternoon. Brazil's coach said the team stepped it up in the second and third sets.
Brazil coach Jose Guimaraes: Today was a nervous situation being the first match for the players. We had some weird movements in the first set. Puerto Rico has been performing better recently. We were more aggressive in the second and third sets and that made the difference.
Puerto Rico coach Jose Mieles: Brazil is one of the best teams in the world. Their ranking is much higher than ours. We played well in the first set, but the players lost their concentration in the second and third sets. We will do our best to make the second round.
Brazil captain Natalia Pereira: We did a good job today. The first set was difficult. We served better after that. We got the three points, that is what is most important.
Puerto Rico captain Natalia Valentin: Brazil was stronger than we expected. We will try to do our best game by game.
Brazil player Fernanda Rodrigues: We are happy to win the first game in a big tournament like this. We were able to gradually show our best performance. They played well in the first set. We will take it one game at a time from here.
Brazil player Thaisa Daheher de Menezes: It was a good game. We were off balance at the beginning. We started serving well and played better after that.