USA stop Turkey, grab first ticket to Women's VNL semifinals

Defending champions USA have secured the first of four tickets to the semifinals of the 2021 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League following a convincing win over Turkey in four sets on Monday night to close the penultimate week of the competition which now takes a three-day break before resuming for Week 5 on Friday.

In reality, it was the defeat of the Netherlands to the Dominican Republic that clinched the deal for the Americans who have now reached an unsurpassable 12-0 on full points.

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USA ran away with their first set on Sunday, but Turkey reacted to break away in the second. When the Americans did react, it was too late and all they could do was reduce a deficit of as many as eight points and close in at 23-24 before Ebrar Karakurt made the final kill.

But other than that brief lapse in the first part of the second set, USA were by far the better team and bit too much for Turkey to handle - the experience and discipline of the Americans showing at every crucial moment as they carried on to seal the match.

Jordan Thompson received the bulk of balls from setter Jordyn Poulter and contributed the match high of 19 points, including five blocks - one over Karakurt's 18.

Brazil advanced to 10-2 (and remain alone in second place in the standings) after a lightning fast win over Thailand with 11 points from Tandara Caixeta and 10 each from Gabi Guimaraes and Fe Garay.

The South Americans completely dominated the scoring with 11 blocks (three from Ana Beatriz 'Bia' Correa) to 1 and 5 aces to none.

China, meanwhile, are slowly closing in on some of their rivals for a ticket to the semifinals, after their emphatic three-set victory over Italy on Monday, their fourth consecutive win - but they're still far behind and it would take some creative combinations of results in Week 5 to see them through.

The reigning Olympic champions completely outplayed Italy across the board and with Zhu Ting sitting this one out it was Li Yingying who collected the match high of 19 points.

After falling to USA the previous day, Japan are back in the chase for a semifinal spot with a come-from-behind four-set victory over Belgium on Monday.

Belgium had the two top scorers of the game in Britt Herbots (26) and Marlies Janssens (22) and totally dominated the blocking (14 stuffs - eight of those by Janssens).

Japan, however, would count not only on their own best scorer, Sarina Koga on 21, but also on the 33 unforced errors gifted to them by Belgium.

Herbots' haul sees the 21-year-old Belgium extend her lead in the overall list of best scorers of the tournament - still at the top and now 20 points ahead of Poland's Magdalena Stysiak.

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The Netherlands, however, have now fallen behind in their own quest for a semifinal berth after losing in four sets to the Dominican Republic.

The Dutch could have taken a 2-1 lead, but only managed to come back from 24-21 down in the third to draw level and then cancel a total of seven set points before Bethania de la Cruz made the last kill to bring the set home.

The Netherlands committed 34 unforced errors, but Nika Daalderop scored the match high of 23 points (including three aces) and is fourth in the list of the tournament's best scorers, tied with China's Zhang Changning.

Serbia, still struggling to field their top lineup (though Ana Jaksic was back setting for her side), were totally overwhelmed by Russia in the first set (at 25-8 the lowest-scoring set so far in this year's VNL), but did managed to see off the remainder of the match on a more respectable scoreline.

Arina Fedorovtseva, Russia's new star at 17, only entered the match in the second set, but still managed a match high of 12 points (including three aces). Alongside her teammate Irina Koroleva, who recorded four blocks and four aces for a total of 11 points, they were the only players of the match to score in double digits.

In other VNL action on Monday, Germany were inspired by their setter Denise Imoudu to shut out Poland for their fourth win in the tournament. Imoudou distributed the play quite evenly, with Kimberly Drewniok ending up with the match high of 15 points.

And Korea secured their second win of Week 4 and third overall in an epic five-set win over Canada, who remain unsure about finishing matches.

Canada should have ended it when they led 14-12 in the tie-break and had a sideout opportunity on their second match point. But though Brie King brought Hilary Howe up against a single block, Park Jeongah got the 'monster block' that brought Korea level.

The two sides exchanged match-points (five in total for Canada, three for Korea) before Yang Hyo Jin served an ace on Howe to end the longest tie-break so far in the competition at 21-19.

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