Manila, Philippines, October 22, 2016 – Rexona-Sesc Rio players Gabriela Guimaraes (Gabi) and Fabiana Oliveira (Fabi) admitted that it was difficult to play against the defence-oriented Bangkok Glass side in the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship on Saturday, but the two key players agreed that sheer concentration was their key to victory.
Gabriela Braga Guimaraes, Rexona-Sesc Rio player: “It was a hard game because Bangkok Glass had good service and had great ability to challenge us. No.8 (Wilavan Apinyapong) is amazing and such a good player.
“We had a lot of mistakes on the third set. We can’t play like this. We need to have fewer mistakes as possible. We have a hard match tomorrow, so hopefully we can win because we want to win fifth place in the tournament.
“It’s really difficult to attack because they have amazing defence all the time. We need to improve more and more, dig balls. It’s good for us to play a team like that because, normally, we play taller teams like VakifBank and it’s a difficult match. They are so quick and so we needed to focus all the time. For us it’s really a good opportunity to have a different type of opponent. They put much energy in the third set. I hope we can play better.”
Fabiana Oliveira, Rexona-Sesc Rio player: “My team played huge because concentration was there. The Thai players were active and moved all the time. We had good concentration, good serves and good blocks. We lost our concentration in the third set.”
“We are not yet sure whether we play Japan (Hisamitsu Springs Kobe) or the home team (PSL-F2 Logistics Manila). I hope my team fights again in our final match. We need it more for tomorrow’s match. It’s very important for us.”
Kittipong Pornchatyingcheep, Bangkok Glass coach: “The first set against Rexona was okay. Everybody in our team played okay, even good. But Rexona are a very good team. We just had some few problems with our reception, but I'm still happy that my team played professionally.
“Maybe we will play with Philippines (PSL-F2 Logistics Manila) tomorrow. The Philippine club team is a good team with many fans.”
Pleumjit Thinkaow, Bangkok Glass captain: “Today, I think our reception was not good and also the serve was not good. We can’t receive so we can’t do anything. We are ready for either Hisamitsu or PSL-F2 Logistics, so we have time to play better for our last game.”