Puerto Rico and Czechia to battle for VNL 2025 spot

Puerto Rico and Czechia will lock horns for the title of last-ever champions of the women’s Volleyball Challenger Cup and the right to compete in Volleyball Nations League 2025. The two teams swept their semifinals against Belgium and Vietnam, respectively, in Manila on Saturday and advanced to Sunday’s gold medal game set to start at 18:30 local time (10:30 UTC) at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium. The bronze medal match between Vietnam and Belgium, also on Sunday, will get underway at 15:00 (07:00).

• Watch Volleyball Challenger Cup 2024 live on VBTV

Puerto Rico hammered out a speedy win over Belgium in the first semifinal in Manila on Saturday. In just 71 minutes of play time, the Caribbean squad produced an emphatic 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-16) shutout of their European opponents. The only scoring element Belgium did better than Puerto Rico in was the blocking. The Puerto Ricans dominated on all other counts, especially in attack, which brought them 41 kills against only 26 for the Belgians. Outside hitter Paola Santiago led the winners with 13 points, including one ace. 18-year-old opposite Grace Lopez added another 10 points, all in offence, towards the victory, and these were the only two players on the court to reach the double digits in the match.

After snatching two Challenger Cup bronze medals in 2018 and 2022, Puerto Rico advanced to the tournament final for the first time in history.

“I think we locked in everything since the beginning. We had good serve, good defence, good attack and that’s what helped us get the win,” Grace Lopez told VBTV after the match. “It feels great. We had been working all summer for this and now we are prepared for tomorrow’s final.”

Czechia completely outblocked Vietnam (13-2 in stuffs) in the second semifinal in Manila on Saturday, but that was only one of the keys to their convincing 68-minute 3-0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-19) victory. The Europeans also outscored the Asians in attack and from the serving line and, although they committed more unforced errors, that did not prevent them from completely dominating on the court. Opposite Gabriela Orvosova delivered a match-high 17 points, registering a 52% success rate in spiking and putting away two aces and one kill block. Outside hitter Helena Havelkova added another 13 points, including two blocks. Czech middles Magdalena Jehlarova and Ela Koulisiani excelled in blocking with eight stuffs combined (five and three, respectively) and also finished in the double digits (10 and 11 points, respectively). Vietnam was once again led by outside Thi Bich Tuyen Nguyen, who tallied only 12 points this time, after leading her team with 30 points in their quarterfinal on Friday.

This will be Czechia’s second Challenger Cup final in the history of the competition. In the 2019 gold medal match, they lost to Canada to settle for silver.

“I am really happy that we won. We faced a different style of volleyball, but we won with teamwork,” Gabriela Orvosova said after the game.

“I hope tomorrow we are going to play the same volleyball as today, be like a team and enjoy the game. We will prepare with video and we will see how it is,” outside Magdalena Bukovska added.

Volleyball Challenger Cup 2024: schedule and results

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