A new challenge for last season's MVP, Gabi

Since her emergence on the volleyball top stage roughly 10 years ago, after dominating performances in the younger age categories for the Brazil women’s national teams, Gabi has racked up individual awards and trophies at an unprecedented rate, with the previous season being one of the most impressive ones.

The 28-year-old outside spiker, who entered her prime and is delivering consistently good games over the last seasons, became the first Brazilian player to be named the MVP of the CEV Women's Champions League, leading her side, VakifBank Istanbul, to the fifth title in history and the first since the 2017/18 season.

Now, the Turkish powerhouse are back in the SuperFinals, for the third time in a row, having previously won the trophy once and conceded a nail-biting loss in the other game, with Gabi boasting a star role in both games, irrespective of the results.

But this time around, the outside spiker has taken responsibility up to a new notch. After making her mark time and time again for VakifBank, since signing for the Turkish powerhouse in 2019, Gabi has been named the captain of the side before this season and has been nothing short of superb once again, being one of the key pillars of her side this season, in good times and bad, always coming up to the occasion when she was needed.

The Brazilian star has hit a rough patch at times this season, but eventually bounced back, boasting a 95-point tally this season, in 30 sets played, or an average of 3.17 points per set.

However, her experience and immense talent shined through exactly when VakifBank needed it the most. Namely, in the quarter-finals against Vero Volley Milano, especially in the first leg, where she had 18 points, but also in the second leg of the semi-finals against Fenerbahce Opet Istanbul.

Gabi had 18 points, 16 spikes and a 50% spike rate to help her side progress to the SuperFinals with a 3-0 win over domestic rivals Fenerbahce, followed by a 15-12 win in the Golden Set, which avenged all the trouble which VakifBank overcame to reach the SuperFinal for the third season in a row.

The Brazilian spiker delivered on her performance to replace VakifBank’s former captain, Melis Gürkaynak, made before the season, and can be the first player to lift the trophy, provided they become the first team to win back-to-back trophies for the first time since they last did it in 2017 and 2018.