Avery Skinner back with a bang

With Avery Skinner back on the team for the first time since winning Olympic silver in Paris, hosts USA prevailed over Thailand in Wednesday’s last women’s Volleyball Nations League match in Arlington. Despite a strong showing from Pimpichaya Kokram, the Americans took out their Asian opponents in four sets to improve to a 5-4 win-loss record and 14 points, consolidating in eighth place in the current VNL standings, just above the cut-off for the Finals. Thailand, on the other hand, are just a point above the bottom of the table that dooms to relegation, in 17^th place on 1-8 and 5.

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After three sets of hard-fought battle, in the fourth, United States broke away to please the home crowd with a 3-1 (28-26, 21-25, 27-25, 25-15) victory and snatch the three points. Thailand put up a solid fight. In the first set, they came back from a six-point deficit and denied three set points before folding. After leveling the score in the second, they once again came from behind in the third, saved two set points to push it to overtime before USA could edge ahead with another lead. The fourth set was the only one-sided set of the match, in which the home team were well in control to secure the three-point victory.

The winners were led by outside hitter Avery Skinner with 22 points, including two kill blocks and an ace. Her cross-court teammate Logan Eggleston put away 19 points, including a block. While middle blocker Dana Rettke chipped in with 10 points, including an ace. They all registered success rates in attack above 50%. Thailand’s opposite Pimpichaya was by far the best scorer of the game. She piled up a match-high 28 points, including a block.

“This was so special! I’ve been so excited in waiting for this match, so I’m glad we could come out and get a win. It’s really fun being back with this group. Coming to Arlington is so fun, because we get to play in front of our crowd, so we are grateful for all the fans that have come out to support us,” Skinner told VBTV. “Playing Thailand, an amazing team, we knew the rallies were going to be long, so for us it was just about being patient, not trying to score maybe on the first ball, but when we get our chance, then going for it.”

Thursday’s new VNL competition day will start rolling out shortly, as France and Brazil take to the court in Chiba, Japan at 15:30 local time (06:30 UTC).

Volleyball Nations League 2025: full schedule and results

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