Volleyball Nations League: China beats USA, which plays Japan in quarterfinals

The USA women, who have just two losses this summer in Volleyball Nations League, will now play one of the teams that beat them when they move on to the quarterfinals.

That’s because the Americans (10-2) lost to China (8-4) in five on Sunday to wrap up the third round, which dropped them to second place in the standings. They will Japan, which finished seventh, but stunned the USA in the third match of the second round. Sunday’s defeat snapped a four-match winning streak.

The other quarterfinal matches in Arlington, Texas, July 12 or 13, show first-place Poland (10-2) vs. Germany (7-5), which fell to eighth; third-place Türkiye (9-3) vs. Italy (8-4); and fourth-place Brazil (8-4) against China.

The USA-Japan winner plays the China-

Monday is a VNL off day and then the men resume in Anaheim and Pasay City, Phillipines. The USA men play Cuba on Wednesday in the first of four matches in the city in which they train.

CHINA RALLIES VS. USA: The Americans left Suwon, Korea, on the short end of a 18-25, 25-19, 19-25, 25-20, 15-8 score. They led 5-3 in the fifth before the wheels came off.

Kathryn Plummer led the USA with 22 kills, 11 digs and an ace. Kelsey Robinson Cook had 17 kills and 10 digs and Annie Drews had 15 kills, seven digs and a block, but two tough attack errors late in the fifth that sailed out.

Dana Rettke had seven kills, two blocks and an ace and Haleigh Washington had seven kills. Setter Lauren Carlini had four kills Libero Justine Wong-Orantes had 17 digs.

Li Yingying led China with 26 kills and two aces. Xinyue Yuan had nine kills, three blocks and an ace, and Xiangyu Gong had 12 kills and a block. China held a 9-3 blocks advantage.

The lineups are different and will be in Texas, but this is from our recap after Japan beat the USA two weeks ago:

Japan beat the USA 23-25, 25-23, 25-19, 23-25, 15-6 as the Americans were no match for Yukiko Wada. She had 28 kills, three blocks and an ance. Mayu Ishiikawa had 16 kills, a block, 16 digs and two aces and Sarina Nishida had 12 kills and 17 digs.. Mika Shibata had 20 digs and Miniami Nishimura 16. 

Japan, which beat the Americans in the VNL in 2022, had 69 kills and the USA 65. The Americans held an 11-8 blocks advantage and Japan had five aces to the USA’s three. 

Danielle Cuttino had 17 kills and nine digs for the USA to go with a block. Khalia Lanier had 15 kills, three blocks and two aces and had 16…