Japan and Brazil power through to VNL semis

Japan and Brazil emerged as the first semifinalists of the women’s Volleyball Nations League 2024. With the start of the VNL Finals in Bangkok on Thursday, they swept their quarterfinal encounters with China and hosts Thailand, respectively, to continue their quest towards the podium. Japan and Brazil are set to lock horns in the second semifinal on Saturday at 20:30 local time (13:30 UTC).

The other two quarterfinals will be played on Friday, with Italy facing USA at 17:00 (10:00) and Poland taking on defending champions Türkiye at 20:30 (13:30).

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Japan and China opened the four-day clamax of the competition in the Thai capital with a much anticipated all-Asian clash. After a relatively one-sided first set, China’s young squad, playing without most of the team’s big stars, put up a fight in the next sets, but Japan managed to close the game victoriously in three, 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-22). Outside hitter and captain Sarina Koga contributed a match-high 22 points, including one ace, to Japan’s success. Her cross-court teammate Mayu Ishikawa added another 14 points. China’s outsides, 21-year-old Zhuang Yushan and the team’s captain for this match Zhang Changning, scored 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Japan advanced to the VNL semifinals for the second time in the history of the competition, after 2021, when they finished in fourth place.

“We can do better than that, especially in serving and reception. Japan gave us a lot of pressure today and made us nervous. We have a lot of young players and we need more practice to improve,” China’s captain Zhang Changning told Volleyball World after the match. “Now we keep going and we do our best.”

“We are just focusing on every single game and, hopefully, we keep winning in the tournament,” said Japan’s middle blocker Airi Miyabe. “We could have played better early on in the game, but we fixed a lot of things towards the end of the game and that’s why we did well today.”

Inspired by the fantastic support from over six thousand fans on the stands, Thailand stood up to mighty Brazil and played as equals at many moments of the second quarterfinal on Thursday, but the South Americans did not allow any surprises and took the match in straight sets, 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-23). Brazil’s star outside and captain Gabriela Guimaraes (Gabi) topped the match charts with 16 points, all in attack at a 53% success rate. The other Brazilian outside, Ana Cristina, added another 14 points. Thailand’s most prolific player of the match, outside Chatchu-On Moksri, also produced 14 points.

This is the fifth time Brazil have made it to the semifinals out of six VNL editions so far. They have made it further to the finals three times, finishing runners-up in 2019, 2021 and 2022.

“I think this year the VNL was a great experience for us, because all the other teams are so strong. Today I feel very happy, because we are playing at home and our fans are cheering for us, but also for Brazil” said Chatchu-On.

“It was a really difficult match, exactly as we expected. Thailand were playing at home, without pressure, smiling all the time… We tried to stay concentrated. We never gave up in the difficult moments, especially in the third set. This is what we need – 14 players ready!” Gabi commented. “We always meet Japan in difficult moments. It’s always a tough match. So we expect five sets, for sure, and we need to be rested and ready. We have to keep our energy and our aggressiveness, because it won’t be easy.”

Volleyball Nations League 2024: schedule and results

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