In the second match of the day, Cuba recovered from a slow start to beat Italy 28-30, 25-18, 25-23 and 25-19 for their fourth win, finishing just behind Brazil in the Grand Prix Final Round.
"I am glad to win this match, but in the preliminary round we lost against Italy so I think the result just depends on which team plays that bit better on the day," said head coach Antonio Perdomo.
"Yesterday Brazil's serve worked very well and we could not play our own game, but today we served well and covered the Italian team. I think it is really good for us to fight in such a high-level game. "
Brazil earned a hard-fought 3-0 victory over hosts Japan Sunday evening to win their seventh World Grand Prix title with a perfect 5-0 record as the 2008 edition of the women's volleyball gala lowered its curtain at Yokohama Arena.
Earlier on Sunday, the United States ended the 2008 FIVB World Grand Prix Final Round on a high note, outlasting China 25-23, 25- 19, 22-25, 21-25 and 17-15.
Sharing a 2-3 win-loss record with Italy, the Americans ranked fourth behind the Azzurre due to disadvantage in points win-loss ratio.
"All the teams are very close right now and the result could go either way," said the United States' Chinese head coach Lang Ping. "We played well but we also had some luck today. We need to improve our level and reduce unforced errors and try to play more consistently."
Roared on by 12,500 home fans, Japan fought bravely against Brazil to stay within 19-18 in the first set before the unbeaten South Americans staged a 4-1 run to enlarge their lead to 23-19 thanks to a block of Walewska Oliveira and Sheilla Castro against Megumi Kurihara and consecutive spiking mistakes of the Japanese.
After Kurihara came back for a smash to cut it to 23-20, Paula Pequeno made it 24-20. The tenacious Japanese staved off three set points to pull within 24-23, but a serve error of Kurihara awarded the opener to Brazil.
The story of the first set was cloned in the second. Again the Brazilians were 24-20 before two spikes of Kurihara and a block on Pequeno Trailing helped Japan make it one-point game. On their fourth set point, Fofao delivered the ball to the right side for Castro, who slammed home for the set winner.
In the third set, Brazil surged away from 17-15 and never looked back. Castro led Brazil with 16 points and Pequeno and Steinbrecher added 13 and 12 respectively.
