VNL 2025

Spectacular ending against Thailand brings Czechia closer to VNL Finals

20-year-old top scorer Brancuska nails the end of a 32-30 drama in set three

Published 11:18, 21 Jun 2025

Czechia (CZE) vs. Thailand (THA) women - Pool 5 - Preliminary Phase #47852121

Czechia’s Monika Brancuska celebrates

Who would have thought that women’s Volleyball Nations League newcomers Czechia would be well in contention for a spot in the 2025 Finals well after the halfway mark of the Preliminary Phase? Well, they are… On Saturday in Hong Kong, they achieved their second consecutive straight-set win, this time against a fighting Thailand, who pushed the Czechs deep into a spectacular overtime of the third set before folding. In the current VNL standings, the European rookies are above the cut-off line for the Finals, in eighth place, already on a 4-3 win-loss record and 10 points, while Thailand remain under a serious threat of relegation, standing in 16^th place on 1-6 and 4.

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Czechia dominated the first two sets of the match to close them by wide margins, but Thailand put up some fight in the third for a fascinating ending as the game went 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 32-20) the Europeans’ way. In the very competitive third set, the Asians wiped out a three-point deficit and had two-point leads of their own at times, but Czechia reached first match point at 24-23. Thailand kept battling and denied as many as six of those, while also wasting a set point of their own, before Monika Brancuska hammered the match winner on her team’s seventh opportunity to close it off.

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That point shaped up the 20-year-old Czech opposite’s total tally to a match-high 22 points, including an ace and three of her team’s 10 kill blocks in the game. Outside hitter and captain Michaela Mlejnkova spiked at a 57% success rate to finish with 17 points, while her experienced cross-court teammate Helena Grozer raised four kill blocks towards a 13-point total.

“We are more than happy! It was a great game from us. We were really concentrated and focused on what we did, even if they played a little bit different style and it was a little bit more difficult. We managed well and we did a good job,” Michaela Mlejnkova told VBTV on the court after the match. “It was really important to stay calm even when the score was not going our way. It’s the strength of our team that we always stick together, no matter what happens…”

On the Thailand side, 19-year-old outside Warisara Seetaloed and opposite Pimpichaya Kokram emerged as the best scorers with 14 points each, while the other outside Sasipapron Janthawisut also reach the double digits with 10.

“Today I saw my team fight a lot, but losing the game disappointed me a lot, because we had a chance to win the match, but we couldn’t,” Pimpichaya commented. “We pushed as much as we could in the last set, because we did not want to lose easily. But they are doing well too…”

Another five VNL matches are coming up on Saturday. The competition day continues with what could be dubbed as the match of the day. In Hong Kong, Japan will take on hosts China in an Asian classic starting at 20:00 local time (12:00 UTC). The Istanbul program starts with a game between the Dominican Republic and Brazil at 16:00 local time (13:00 UTC) and ends with Korea challenging the home team Turkiye at 19:30 (16:30). The Netherlands and USA will lock horns in Belgrade at 16:30 local time (14:30 UTC), followed by a match between France and hosts Serbia at 20:00 (18:00).