Semifinals matchups confirmed at Women's VNL

Defending champions USA will face Turkey and Brazil will meet Japan in the semifinals of the 2021 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League on Thursday, after the matchups were confirmed at the close of pool play on Sunday night at Italy's Adriatic resort of Rimini.

All four semifinalists had already secured their spots in the Final Four even before the start of Day 15, but the final positions were only determined after Japan beat Serbia and Turkey fell to Brazil.

• Check out the final standings of pool play at the 2021 Women's VNL

Schedule of 2021 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League semifinals

Although already qualified for the Final Four, Japan were obviously keen to avoid USA in the semifinals (so needed to move up from fourth to third in the standings), though this was only confirmed after Brazil swept Turkey on Sunday night in the very last of the 120 matches of the round robin phase.

Japan found hardly any resistance from Serbia and cruised to a 3-0 win while at the same time giving some of their reserves time on court.

Yuki Ishii with 14 points and Kotona Hayashu with 13 led the scoring for Japan, whose serving Serbia could not deal with. On the other hand, Serbia did produce superior blocking once again - their most successful weapon throughout this VNL.

But Brazil, already guaranteed second place regardless of the result, started the match impeccably and set a frenetic pace to the game that Turkey could not follow.

Eventually, Brazil slowed down somewhat in the third and Turkey seized the opportunity to grab a set, as both Giovanni Guidetti and Ze Roberto started changing their teams.

With Natalia in and starting the fourth set to apply pressure with her serving and Tandara Caixeta in great form (getting the match high of 19 points) and Fe Garay also contributing, Brazil put it to bed in four, leaving Turkey in fourth place of the standings.

USA, meanwhile, suffered their first defeat of this VNL, going down to China in straight sets in an hour and 18 minutes.

Zhu Ting was back in action again and unstoppable, registering an incredible 72% (13/18) in attack and adding two aces and a block for a match high of 16 points. Only Annie Drews from USA made it into double digits with 11 points.

The startling result ended USA's 14-match winning streak at the 2021 VNL, however, it was of no consequence: USA were already ranked first and China were already out of contention for a semifinals spot.

In other VNL action on Sunday, Thailand's Fab 6 bid an emotional farewell to international volleyball as they fell in their last match together to Italy in four sets.

Pleumjit Thinkaow, Wilavan Apinyapong, Nootsara Tomkom, Onuma Sittirak, Malika Kanthong and Amporn Hyapha, who were drafted last-minute to play at this VNL, were making their last appearance as a team in Rimini.

Italy's Loveth Omoruyi became the sixth player this year to score '30+' points after firing away 33 to lead Italy.

Italy dominated on the net, with Eleonora Furlan delivering 8 of her team's 18 stuffs and scoring a total of 20 points - on par with Giulia Melli.

Onuma Sittirak was Thailand's best scorer on 24.

The first set, at 35-33 for Thailand, was the highest-scoring in the history of the women's VNL, breaking the previous record of 33-31 recorded in three matches.

Nika Daalderop delivered the second '30+' of the day after scoring exactly 30 (8 in the tie-break alone) and leading the Netherlands to a five-set win over Korea.

And Poland completed their 2021 VNL adventure on a high, edging Russia in five sets with a lot of blocking on both sides: 19 from Poland (seven by Agnieszka Kakolewska who only started in sets four and five) and 15 from Russia (five by Irinia Koroleva).

Magdalena Stysiak came close to a second personal '30+' performance standing at 25 points after the fourth set, but scoring only once in the tie-break for a match high of 26.

Britt Herbots was about to bag the third '30+' of the day and her fifth personal this year, but Belgium downed Canada in three sets and the 21-year-old finished the match on 'only' 26.

Herbots completes her appearance at the 2021 VNL having amassed 337 points and likely to claim the honour of top scorer of the competition. Of those players continuing in the competition, Turkey's Ebrar Karakurt is next in the table of best scorers, but on 283 it is unlikely she will be able to catch up with Herbots in the last two remaining matches.

• Check out the individual rankings of players

Earlier in the day the Dominican Republic had denied Germany a full comeback, prevailing in the tie-break, despite the pressure the European side applied with their serving. Germany served nine aces - five of them by Camilla Weitzel.

Sixth place in the final ranking of the VNL for the 'Queens of the Caribbean' is an improvement on their previous best of 8th from 2019.

• Check out the full results and details of all matches, plus remaining schedule