Brazil – Thailand 3-1 (25-16, 25-22, 18-25, 25-13)
Brazil scored the third consecutive win and for the moment jumped on the top position of the Volleyball Nations League. Rosamaria Montibeller led Brazilian team to the new win with 18 points including three aces.
Tandara Caixeta who was not on the court during the last set, supported her with another 14 points, while the two middle blockers, Ana Beatriz Correa and Ana Carolina da Silva, also dipped into the double digits with 12 and 11 points.
Netherlands
China – Netherlands 1-3 (24-26, 25-17, 17-25, 21-25)
In Stuttgart, the Netherlands scored their second win and secured the spot at the Final Six in Nanjing.
Today, they defeated the young team of China and won the three new points. Once again Lonneke Slöetjes was the leader with 28 points and as always, Anne Buijs helped her with 17 points. On the Asian side, Yingying Li scored 19 points while Xiangyu Gong 16 points.
China, who have automatically qualified for the finals as hosts, dominated at the net – as a testament to a decisive 14-7 advantage in points from the block position – but had no answer for the irresistible Sloetjes who was the difference between the teams.
It was just the Netherlands’ eighth victory from 28 attempts against China at the world major level and their first in less than five sets.
Dominican Republic – Japan 2-3 (15-25, 25-14, 25-21, 27-29, 13-15)
For Japan, this was their seventh victory while the Dominican Republic are still without solution how to win the match.
Japan are an all-around team, but today Sarina Koga with 24 points stepped up to be the shining light in attack, complimenting their impressive defensive display. With that win, Japan avoided becoming the first nation to lose 300 matches at world level, and move ahead one more in wins to 328. Yonkaira Paola Peña Isabel was their top scorer taking 28 points while Brayelin Elizabeth Martinez scored 25 points.
Italy – Belgium 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-19)
Elena Pietrini and Paola Egonu with 38 points (19 each) helped Italy to claim the 9th win and scored new three points in VNL. Now they have 27 points but that is not enough for Nanjing.
They dominated in the block and aces and the score in both elements was 10-4 for Italy. On the other side, Belgium suffered the third consecutive defeat but they stayed on the 13th position with 9 points. Today, Marlies Janssens led the team with 13 points.
Poland – Russia 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-15)
This is really, unreal situation. Poland scored the sixth consecutive victory in VNL but they are without chances to go at F6.
In today’s match, they outplayed Russia who was without solutions and interesting, the match was finished after only three sets. Malwina Smarzek led Polish team with 20 points while Natalia Malykh scored 16 points for Russia.
Turkey
Germany – Turkey 1-3 (16-25, 15-25, 25-20, 19-25)
Turkey are the last finalist of the VNL. After they scored a win over Germany they booked the ticket for Nanjing where they will try to achieve some medal.
Against the host team Turkey scored a very important victory and now with 32 points, it is enough to calmly wait for the last game in the pool’s stage and prepare for Final Six.
Turkey dominated in the block (13-3) and of course that Zehra Gunes and Eda Erdem Dundar were the leaders of the net. Meryem Boz scored 21 points but Gunes was the second-best with 15 points and Eda the third with 14 points. For the German side, Kimberly Drewniok scored 21 points while Maren Brinker Fromm 10.
USA – Korea 3-0 (25-13, 25-23, 25-19)
USA celebrated the straight sets victory over Korea and returned to the top position of VNL. Lauren Gibbemeyer was the leader of the America team with 11 points followed by Jordan Larson-Burbach and Kelly Murphy who scored 10 points each while Jae-Yeong Lee had a game-high 12 points but Jeong-Ah Park struggled with just 8 points.
Korea also played without captain Kim Yeon-Koung and that is the reason why they lost eight of their past nine matches.
Argentina – Serbia 0-3 (27-29, 13-25, 16-25)
Serbia celebrated new victory in front of the Argentinian crowd. Ana Bjelica and Milena Rašić crushed local hopes during a straight-sets victory over the hosts. Serbian opposite scored 18 points while captain finished the match with 16 points. Paula Yamila Nizetich and Anahi Florenca Tosi scored 9 points each for Argentina.
Serbia captain Milena Rašić after the match: “It was important for us to win because it’s always difficult to play against the home team. I’m very happy with the result. We played a very good match and tomorrow we will have the chance of letting our younger players gain experience.”
To see complete results, stats, and standings, visit our Volleyball Nations League 2018 / Female page.
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