With 15 points, 20-year-old outside hitter Jolien Knollema was on fire against the Asians
Published 05:49, 27 Jun 2023
Dutch players celebrate a good start to the last week of the VNL 2023 Preliminary Phase
The last week of the Volleyball Nations League 2023 Preliminary Phase didn’t start the way the thousands of fans that packed the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium, in Bangkok, Thailand, expected as the home team was upset by the Netherlands on Tuesday.
Displaying strength and great consistency throughout the match, the Europeans secured a 3-0 (28-26, 25-18, 25-20) win over the Thai, starting their Pool 6 campaign on the right foot.
The third Dutch victory in nine matches in the VNL 2023 pushed the team up to tenth place in the standings, with 11 points. Thailand are 13th with eight points and have a campaign of two wins in nine matches.
Outside hitter Jolien Knollema was a key piece in the Dutch victory. The 20-year-old player, who’s in her second VNL campaign with the Netherlands, tallied a match-high 15 points, with 12 kills, one ace and two blocks.
“We knew it was going to be a big fight against Thailand and their home crowd,” Knollema said. “Our playing styles are very different, but we watched a lot of film and prepared well for the match. We always believed we could win. We knew that we had to get our defense right and be patient to put the ball down in the rallies. I’m really proud of our team.”
Knollema was a force at the net for the Netherlands
Also playing major roles in the Dutch triumph were middle blocker Indy Baijens, who registered 13 points (nine kills, four blocks), and outside hitter and team captain Nika Daalderop, who added another 11, with nine kills, one ace and one block.
The only Thai player to get to double digits in scoring was outside hitter Chatchu-On Mokrsi. The 23-year-old attacker had 13 points, all obtained in kills.
The Dutch victory had a lot to do with the team’s dominance at the net and from the service line. While the Europeans combined for 18 points in the two skills (11 blocks, seven aces), the Asians didn’t get a single point in either of them. The Thai were better offensively (47 kills to 42), but gave away one more point from errors (18 to 17).
**Volleyball Nations League 2023: full schedule and results**
In the first match held in Bangkok, Canada secured an important 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 28-26) victory over Croatia. The two teams need to remain away from the bottom of the standings to confirm their presence in the VNL 2024 and the Canadians got closer to it, moving up to ninth place with four wins (13 points) – Croatia are at risk in 15th place with two victories (six points).
Star outside hitter Alexa Gray had a big role in the Canadian victory, producing a match-high 20 points (17 kills, three blocks) – the next player with the most points was opposite Kiera Van Ryk, who tallied 11 (nine kills, one ace, one block). Croatia had three players delivering ten points in middle blockers Emma Strunjak and Martina Šamadan and outside hitter Laura Miloš.
The second day of Pool 6 competition in Thailand will feature two more matches, with Japan playing Türkiye at 17:00 local time (10:00 UTC) and Brazil and Italy meeting in a rematch of last year’s VNL gold medal match at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC).
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