The Americans rebound from two sets down to finish pool play on a high note
The United States finished their Pool F campaign at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 with a huge turnaround from two sets down against Thailand to claim their seventh win since the start of the tournament. The reigning Olympic champions opened the last competition day in the pool with a 3-2 (23-25, 21-25, 25-19, 27-25, 15-13) victory at the Atlas Arena in Lodz on Saturday, after denying two Thai match points in set four.
On a 7-2 win-loss record, 20 points and a 21-11 set ratio, USA are second in the current Pool F standings, below pool winners Serbia (on 8-0) and above third-placed Türkiye (on 6-2, 17 points, 21-10 in sets and a game at hand). These three teams are sure to advance to the quarterfinals even before the remaining three games on Saturday – Serbia vs Türkiye at 17:30 local time (15:30 GMT), Dominican Republic vs Canada at 19:00 (17:00), and Poland vs Germany at 20:30 (18:30). Hosts Poland, placed fourth on 5-3 and 15 points, and the Dominican Republic, fifth on 4-4 and 14, are the two teams that will race for the fourth ticket to the quarterfinals from this pool.
· Watch all FIVB Volleyball Women’s World Championship 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.
Overall, the Americans did way better than the Thais in both offence and blocking, but committed far too many unforced errors during the match. Two middle blockers led the US scorers. Haleigh Washington contributed 15 points, including two blocks and spiking at a 59% success rate. Chiaka Ogbogu added another 14, also including two blocks and swinging at a 55% success rate.
“Honestly, Chiaka and I have been working very hard to make ourselves as available as we can and to work on being in good blocking positions, so it’s been a process throughout this whole tournament. I am just stoked that we managed to pull it off, last game in pool play,” said Washington after the match. “It’s so fun! I love playing Thailand. They do what they do and they do it so well. They are just a confident, fun and energetic team, and it’s fun to figure out how to beat that.”
Thailand’s opposite Pimpichaya Kokram delivered the match high of 20 points, all in attack, backed up by outside hitter Chatchu-On Moksri with 18 points, including an ace.
The first set of the match was really tight. With both sides showing some solid performances in…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Asian Volleyball Confederation…