Kisy steals the show at Thaisa’s comeback party

Brazilian fans had the celebration they long waited for on Wednesday, as the country’s national team triumphed in front of 8,000 supporters in the return of legendary middle blocker Thaisa Menezes as the second week of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 started for the South Americans in the country’s capital Brasilia.

With the 36-year-old middle blocker in the starting lineup, the Brazilians secured their fourth victory in the VNL 2023, posting a 3-0 (31-29, 25-16, 25-16) win over Korea at the Nilson Nelson Stadium.

• Watch Volleyball Nations League 2023 live on VBTV

A two-time Olympic champion (Beijing 2008 and London 2012), Thaisa wore the Brazilian uniform for the first time since 2018 and was passionately cheered by the home fans. The veteran responded with a strong performance, scoring 11 points (nine kills, one ace, one block) in the Brazilian victory over the Asians.

“To return after such a long time, it really felt like a debut,” she said after the match. “I had goosebumps getting on the court and it took me a little while to calm down. It was very important to return with a victory and that the team could start this week at home with a good result. I’m still reconnecting with all my teammates and step by step, I’ll get there. I’m very well physically, ready to help as much as the team needs, and very grateful to be experiencing this again.”

One of Thaisa’s teammates at Gerdau Minas, opposite Kisy Nascimento stole the show in her return, coming off the bench to register 15 points (13 kills, two blocks). She tied the production of outside hitter Julia Bergmann, who had 14 kills and one ace.

“It was the first time we played Korea and they had a lot of new players,” Julia commented. “We had patience and ended up winning a tough first set and, after that, the next two were much better. We know what we want to this season and we’re showing it on the court. But this was only the beginning, we have three more matches here.”

Korea, who are yet to win a set in the VNL 2023, had outside hitter Daeun Kim as their leading scorer, with 11 points (eight kills, two aces, one block), followed by fellow outside hitter Sohwi Kang, who tallied nine (eight kills, one ace).

Despite conceding more points to their opponents in errors (22 to 19), the Brazilians overcame the Koreans in kills (51 to 30), blocks (nine to six) and aces (four to three).

**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**

The match concluded the second day of Pool 4 action in Brasilia. Three more duels will take place on Thursday, with Thailand facing the United States at 14:00 local time (17:00 UTC), the Asian Derby between Japan and Korea at 17:30 local time (20:30 UTC) and the encounter between Brazil and Serbia later at 21:00 local time (00:00 UTC, Friday).

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