As the USA women head into Thursday’s Volleyball Nations League match against Thailand, Poland has taken over the top spot in the standings.
Poland swept Türkiye on Thursday in Hong Kong to improve to 6-0. The USA and China, which has Thursday off, are tied at 5-0. Brazil and Germany are 4-1.
The USA is coming off a four-set win over Croatia on Thursday, while Thailand (2-3) lost to Germany in four on Wednesday.
“We play Thailand today and Thailand is a really fun team,” USA coach Karch Kiraly told us from Brasilia, Brazil. “Fun to watch. For many people I know, that’s their second favorite team after USA, because they always have this joy and smiles and they play with a great love for the game and show it.”
After the USA-Thailand match (1 p.m. Eastern on VB.tv) in Brazil, Japan plays Korea and Brazil plays Serbia. Also in Hong Kong on Thursday, Canada swept Bulgaria and Italy played the Dominican Republic.
Thailand was also in Antalya, Türkiye, for the first round and opened with a tough five-set loss to Italy in which it lost the fourth set 30-28. The Thais swept Canada, got swept by Poland, and then swept Korea,
Against Germany, they were outblocked 13-7 in a 25-20, 25-13, 19-25, 25-23 defeat. Thatdao Nuekjang led with 15 kills and two blocks. Six other players had four or more kills.
“They run a little different offense. One of the beautiful things about women’s volleyball is that there’s a lot more variety and styles. Japan has a certain style, Thailand has a certain style, Brazil has a certain style, and the Thailand style is a lot more based on trickery. They’re not the tallest team, but they’re fast, they’re quick, they’re relentless and scrappy,” Kiraly said.
“They will challenge us every step of the way and we’re looking forward to staying patient. They want to get us to jump in the air as blockers and guess and then have another hitter coming right behind and attack as the blocker is just touching the floor. They’re trying to create a lot of space with trickery and we need to be patient and if anything, be a little late. And we need to serve them tough so they don’t get to run as much of the fast and deceptive offense as they would like.”
The Americans have been living on the edge. They opened the first round with five-set victories over Serbia and Italy, swept Korea and then beat Türkiye in five. Then in Brazil on Wednesday, they fell behind against Croatia before winning 17-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-15. The USA had 14 blocks to Croatia’s six.
“We came out not playing very good volleyball and made some particularly costly errors when we had a nice set to swing at,” Kiraly said. “And that’s when we have the highest chance of probability of about to score a point. And if we make hitting errors or pass a free ball over the net, those kinds of things swing the odds completely away from us and give direct points to the other team. So those were costly.”
Last-place Croatia (0-5) was in control of the first set — the only set it has won in the tournament — against the USA before Kiraly subbed Olympic setter Micha Hancock for VNL first-timer Ashley Evans.
Frantti, who like Hancock also played at Penn State had 15 kills, a block, eight digs and an ace.
Former Cincinnati star Jordan Thompson, who like Frantti stayed home for the first four matches, had 14 kills, two blocks and an ace.
After the first set, “Micha, JT and Asjia came in and really stabilized us and we got back to playing what we would call USA good. We were not looking for perfect plays or great plays, but just lots of good plays.”
O’Neal, who is returning to Texas for another season, had three kills and two blocks.
The USA also got 12 kills, 11 digs and a block from Khalia Lanier (USC). Brionne Butler had six kills, five blocks and four digs.
Hancock had two kills, a block and eight digs and her team hit .470. And another Penn Stater, libero Kendall White, had 16 digs.
The USA has Friday off and then plays Japan on Saturday and Brazil on Sunday before heading home to Anaheim to prepare for the third round, June 27-July 2 in Suwon, Korea.
