As the USA women head into Thursday’s Volleyball Nations League match against Thailand, Poland has taken over the top spot in the standings.
Poland swept Türkiye on Thursday in Hong Kong to improve to 6-0. The USA and China, which has Thursday off, are tied at 5-0. Brazil and Germany are 4-1.
The USA is coming off a four-set win over Croatia on Thursday, while Thailand (2-3) lost to Germany in four on Wednesday.
“We play Thailand today and Thailand is a really fun team,” USA coach Karch Kiraly told us from Brasilia, Brazil. “Fun to watch. For many people I know, that’s their second favorite team after USA, because they always have this joy and smiles and they play with a great love for the game and show it.”
After the USA-Thailand match (1 p.m. Eastern on VB.tv) in Brazil, Japan plays Korea and Brazil plays Serbia. Also in Hong Kong on Thursday, Canada swept Bulgaria and Italy played the Dominican Republic.
Thailand was also in Antalya, Türkiye, for the first round and opened with a tough five-set loss to Italy in which it lost the fourth set 30-28. The Thais swept Canada, got swept by Poland, and then swept Korea,
Against Germany, they were outblocked 13-7 in a 25-20, 25-13, 19-25, 25-23 defeat. Thatdao Nuekjang led with 15 kills and two blocks. Six other players had four or more kills.
“They run a little different offense. One of the beautiful things about women’s volleyball is that there’s a lot more variety and styles. Japan has a certain style, Thailand has a certain style, Brazil has a certain style, and the Thailand style is a lot more based on trickery. They’re not the tallest team, but they’re fast, they’re quick, they’re relentless and scrappy,” Kiraly said.
“They will challenge us every step of the way and we’re looking forward to staying patient. They want to get us to jump in the air as blockers and guess and then have another hitter coming right behind and attack as the blocker is just touching the floor. They’re trying to create a lot of space with trickery and we need to be patient and if anything, be a little late. And we need to serve them tough so they don’t get to run as much of the fast and deceptive offense as they would like.”
The Americans have been living on the edge. They opened the first round with five-set victories over Serbia and Italy, swept Korea and then beat Türkiye in five. Then in Brazil on Wednesday, they fell behind against Croatia before winning…
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