USA – BRA
USA- Brazil 3-1 (25-23, 26-28, 25-21, 25-18)
It was a battle between the top two teams in the VNL in which USA won and continued on their winning ways, overpowering Brazil .
Lauren Gibbemeyer was the MVP Of the match; she scored 16 points but 8 blocks! Captain Jordan Larson-Burbach (16 points) and middle blocker Foluke Akinradewo (13 points) showcased once again just how deep their talent pool runs. Consider the fact that none of the three took part in the previous night’s clash with Russia.
The middle blocker Ana Carolina da Silva with 14 points and Amanda Campos Francisco with 12 led Brazil. There was some mystery at the end in Brazilian team since that Tandara Alves Caixeta sat on the bench in the third and fourth sets.
Japan – South Korea 3-0 (25-22, 25-14, 25-20)
Just as we said, Japan from the beginning of the competition played – one win one defeat. Today was a winning day and they outplayed Korea in amazing three sets. After today’s match teams have 5-6 and 14 points each but with the better set differences, Japan is on the 9th while Korea on the 10th place.
Yuki Ishii led Japan with 15 points while Risa Shinnabe finished the match with 8 same as Kim Yeon-Koung and Hyo-Jin Yang from Korea.
Japanese coach Kumi Nakada said after the match: “I was very satisfied with my team’s performance today. I am quite happy to see that my players could change their mindset from yesterday’s loss. Korea are a very strong and tall team, so we had to play more aggressively. Tomorrow, we will play against the host team Thailand who are a very skilled team, but we will keep challenging ourselves and try to do our best.”
Thailand – Turkey 1-3 (20-25, 28-30, 25-18, 19-25)
Turkey celebrated in Thailand new victory and today against the host team. With two wins in a row, they had revenge for two defeats in Serbia and tomorrow they will face Korea who are for sure little bit frustrated after today’s loss.
In today match the Turkish team dominated in the block and of course Eda Erdem Dundar was the best in that element with 5 points but the MVP was Hande Baladin who entered into the match in the middle of the first set. She scored 17 points followed by Eda and Zehra Gunes who scored 15 and 13 points.
For the host team who now has the five defeats in a row and interesting all at the home soil, Chatchu-On Moksri was the leader with 16 and Pleumjit Thinkaow scored 15 points.
China
China – Russia 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-22)
After the defeat from Brazil, today China scored a big victory over Russia. Their match was finished after only three sets and that was the Chinese 6th win in VNL. Olympic champions are now on the 6th position while Russia with two defeats in a row stayed on the 7th place, for now.
Xiaotong Liu and Xinyue Yuan led the host team with 15 and 14 points while Irina Voronkova and Kseniia Parubets were the main scorers in Russian team with 14 and 13 points.
It was China’s sixth win out of their past seven matches against the Russians in world level play, while the victory helped China avoid their first 0-3 run since the 2016 FIVB World Grand Prix.
More important, though, was the fact that the world’s number one ranked team continues to improve. Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss in an epic clash against Brazil could have gone either way and also showed there’s more to this Chinese squad than Zhu Ting, the star that she undoubtedly is.
Serbia – Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-19, 25-20, 25-13)
Tijana Bošković led Serbia to their 9th win and once again they jumped on the second position in the standings with one point more than Brazil.
Today Serbia had an easy job against the Dominican Republic who suffered the 9th defeat in 11 VNL games to sit a lowly 13th in the table. The best player of Europe for 2017 finished the match with 21 points while young Bojana Milenković was the second-best scorer of Serbian team with 10 points.
On the Dominican side, Brayelin Martinez again was the best scorer and she was the only player in her team that scored double effect, 10 points.
For the Queens of the Caribbean, with error after error, there was simply no way back against a side as good as Serbia.
Marcos Kwiek‘s side haven’t beaten Serbia since the 2011 World Cup, and they didn’t look close to breaking that unwanted seven-year sequence.
Belgium – Argentina 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-14)
Kaja Grobelna was in a fire during the match against Argentina. She scored 24 points and was the main star of the whole match. Belgium scored the third win but the first after seven defeats.
Antonela Fortuna led Argentina with eight points while sisters Anahi Florenca Tosi and Agnes Victoria Michel Tosi grabbed seven points each. Despite being ranked 11th in the world – two places higher than Belgium – Argentina have now lost all 11 of their VNL outings, failing to even pick up a single point.
Italy
Netherlands – Italy 2-3 (25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 15-25, 8-15)
Italian girls are in the good mood. They achieved the fourth consecutive victory and after Serbia, they defeated The Netherlands. Both matches ended in the fifth set but Azzurine took the 4 points. They are now on the seventh place but until the Final Round they will have four more games and we will see, will they jump in the top five.
Today, Paola Egonuand Lonneke Slöetjes clashed on the net and the younger one won with two points more. Italian bomber scored 27 points while the Dutch player finished the match with 25 points. Italian dominated in the block and Egonu and Anna Danesi put 4 blocks each.
Poland – Germany 3-1 (25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-9)
This was the Polish fifth win in VNL but the second consecutive in Bydgoszcz.
Malwina Smarzek helped Poland to win a first world level victory over their neighbors since 2010. The top scorer of VNL today scored 29 points while Maren Brinker Fromm led Germany with 15 points.
To see complete results, stats, and standings, visit our Volleyball Nations League 2018 / Female page.
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