We are now officially in the second round of the Volleyball Nations League, as the women’s games move to the USA and Macau, where spots for the Finals and the 2024 Paris Olympics are still up for grabs.
Poland and Brazil have already qualified for Paris, but both nations are playing like they’re still looking to qualify, as they are the only undefeated teams left in the competition.
China are on their way to qualify for Paris, as per the SBOTOP Volleyball Nations League 2024 odds, because they finished with an impressive 3-1 record after the first round.
Elsewhere, the USA will look for some home comfort after having a mixed bag of Volleyball Nations League 2024 results thus far.
USA back on the winning track
Team USA will be hoping that yesterday’s 3-1 (25-22, 25-17, 23-25, 25-20) win over Canada will give them the spark they need to do much better in the later rounds of the tournament.
Playing back in Arlington, Texas, the Stars and Stripes introduced several key players who were absent in the first week of the Volleyball Nations League, and they played a huge role in the victory against their North American rivals.
Two of those were outside hitter Kathryn Plummer, who was the team’s top scorer with 16 points (14 kills, two blocks), and Jordan Thompson, who had 15 points (13 kills, one block, one ace). On the other hand, Tokyo Olympics MVP Jordan Larson also registered 15 points (12 kills, two blocks, one ace).
At 355.23 points, the USA are still in fourth place in the FIVB Women’s Rankings, while the loss for Canada means that they are now in ninth place, down to 286.45 points, and a few notches below the qualification cut-off.
Outside hitter Alexa Gray had a game-high of 23 points (20 kills, one block, two aces), while Kiera Van Ryk added 20 points (17 kills, two blocks, one ace) in the losing effort.
Canada will square off against Germany later. On the other hand, the USA will have an additional day off before they face Bulgaria on Friday at College Park Center.
China on course to claim Olympic spot
Barring unforeseen circumstances, China should be able to get the Asian Olympic quota because of their great start, which gave them a huge advantage over their continental rivals, Japan. China are ranked nearly 23 points above Japan and 50 points above the cut-off.
The Chinese improved to 4-1 after opening Round 2 with a 3-1 victory over the Netherlands (21-25, 25-23, 25-23, 25-21), as they managed to win three consecutive sets after being down by one set to start.
The return of Zhu Ting certainly gives China a major morale boost, but the good news is that they no longer need to heavily rely on her.
That is because middle blocker Xinyue Yuan and outside hitter Wu Mengjie led the way for China, as the former recorded 17 points (11 kills, three blocks, three aces) and the latter added 13 points (11 kills, two blocks).
Meanwhile, libero Wang Mengjie was named the best digger of Week 1 with 56 digs. The Shandong star will continue to play a pivotal role for China in the upcoming games.
As for the Netherlands, Elles Dambrink finished with a game-high 23 points (22 kills, one ace) and Indy Baijens tallied 17 points (13 kills, two blocks, two aces). The Netherlands are now 11th in the FIVB Women’s Rankings after the defeat against China (281.99 points).
China will meet Asian counterparts Japan and Thailand in their next two games, while the next opponents for the Netherlands are Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
Brazil, Poland stay undefeated
After dominating Round 1, Brazil had a tougher time against Japan on Tuesday in the 3-2 (24-26, 26-24, 19-25, 25-20, 15-11) victory in Macau.
Gabi Guimaraes, once again, spearheaded the charge for Brazil, as she had 24 points (21 kills, three aces). Moreover, outside hitter Rosamaria Montibeller added 19 points (17 kills, two blocks) for Brazil.
Poland have the same win-loss record as Brazil, but they are above them in the Volleyball Nations League standings because of their set ratio advantage (15:1 to 15:4).
Like Brazil, Poland notched their fifth straight win of the competition with a 3-1 result over Serbia (25-16, 23-25, 25-18, 25-22), as opposite Magdalena Stysiak led the way with 23 points (21 kills, two blocks).
There’s more good news for Poland as they finally have star setter Joanna Wolosz, who missed the entire 2023 edition of this tournament.
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