By Sean Miyaguchi,
Japan fell to the brink of elimination from the Paris Olympic women's volleyball tournament Thursday with a 3-0 loss to world No. 2 Brazil that underscored the South American team's gold medal aspirations.
After losing its opener to Poland, seventh-ranked Japan needed to win to have a chance of automatically advancing to the quarterfinals as one of the top two teams in Pool B.
Captain Sarina Koga and company must now aim to move on to the knockout stage as one of the two best teams from outside the top two in the respective pools.
Brazil, led by captain Gabriela "Gabi" Guimaraes, exacted payback for a surprise loss to eventual runner-up Japan in the Volleyball Nations League semis just over a month ago.
Japan started positively at South Paris Arena against the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist but was eventually ground down by a big and powerful opponent that capitalized on its strong blocking game to take the first set 25-20.
The subsequent sets were a similar story, with the South Americans pulling away to take the second 25-17 and the third 25-18.
"We weren't able to increase the accuracy of our attacks and I think the reason was us making it too easy for them to play offensively," Koga said.
"It was a tough game, but we felt like we could find our rhythm if we just hung in there."
Guimaraes scored a game-high 17 points for the undefeated Brazilians while towering outside hitter Ana Cristina de Souza had 15.
"Having lost to Japan in the VNL really motivated us for this match," de Souza said. "We turned that bad feeling into motivation to come here today and make sure we were going to win."
Japan was led by outside hitters Koga and Arisa Inoue, with 10 and nine, respectively.
With Koga set to retire after the Olympics, Japan must beat Kenya in its final pool game Saturday to have any hope of sending the long-time national team star off with her first medal.
Related coverage:
Olympics: Medal hopeful Japan beats Argentina in men's volleyball
Olympics: Japan women defeated by Poland in Paris volleyball opener
Olympics: Japan lose tight opener to Germany in men's volleyball
