Thai bid for sweep ends in nightmare
The United States ensured hosts Thailand end the third week of the FIVB Women’s Nations League without a win.
The red-hot Americans took just 69 minutes to claim their third straight win this week and eighth overall, beating the home team 3-0 (25-10, 25-22, 25-16) in the final game of Pool 11 at Indoor Stadium Hua Mark.
It was Thailand’s seventh overall loss in the inaugural FIVB tournament. Their only victories were against Argentina in the first week and versus Poland in the second.
“The Americans served very well and their blocks were also strong, especially in the first set and that’s why the score was so lopsided,” said coach Danai Sriwacharamaytakul, who had hoped his team would win all three games in the build-up to next week’s action.
“I gave some of the younger players a chance to play today because we will have to play them [the US] again at the world championships so this was a good opportunity for us to try something different,” he added.
Jordan Larson had a game-high 15 points for the Americans, who won all the games this week without dropping a set. Kemberly Hill added 13.
Onuma Sittirak was Thailand’s top scorer with eight points, while Wilavan Apinyapong had seven.
Thailand head to Nakhon Ratchasima next week to join Japan, South Korea and Turkey in Pool 15, while the United States jet off to Jiangmen to play Pool 14 hosts China as well as Brazil and Russia.
In the early Pool 11 game, Louisa Lippmann produced another dominant display to give Germany their second win in 24 hours with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-15, 21-25, 25-12) victory against Dominican Republic.
Lippmann followed up her 22-point haul against Thailand in Wednesday’s five-set thriller with a game-high 29 points against the Dominican Republic as Germany made it back-to-back wins in the pool after losing their previous six matches in the tournament.
Germany improved to 3-6 while the Dominican Republic dropped to 2-7.
In Hong Kong, Ai Kurogo and Risa Shinnabe had 11 points each, driving Japan to a 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-21) victory over Argentina in Pool 12.
Kurogo drove home a team-leading nine spikes for Japan who never really looked under too much pressure as they took their run this week to 2-1.