USA invincible in women's VNL, China claim 4th straight win

Yuan Xinyue (R) of China blocks the net during the Preliminary Round match between China and Italy at the 2021 FIVB Volleyball Nations League in Rimini, Italy, June 14, 2021. (Xinhua)

RIMINI, Italy, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States beat Turkey 3-1 here on Monday for their 12th straight win in the women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) while China claimed their fourth victory in a row with a 3-0 sweep of Italy.

Jordan Thompson scored a game-high 19 points to lead five American women in double-digit scoring in the 25-21, 23-25, 25-15, and 25-14 win over Turkey. Having won all their 12 round-robin matches, the United States secured a top-four place in the 16-team preliminaries and a berth in the semifinals.

"I think that this whole tournament we have really tried to focus on our side of the net and even when things got tougher during the match, we really stuck to what's our DNA, trying to come back and staying patient together," said American captain Jordan Larson, who finished with 13 points. "Turkey was serving pretty tough and for us, it was running fast and starting our middles as well. So our great offense was key."

Earlier on Monday, China eased past Italy 25-19, 25-11, and 25-19 to improve to a 7-5 win-loss record.

With star spiker Zhu Ting watching from the bench, Li Yingying spearheaded the Chinese offense with 19 points, and Zhang Changning and Yuan Xinyue added 11 apiece.

"Italy is a young team, but powerful. Today our serve and defense made us so successful. We are now a complete team, but I think we still need more practice to be even better next week," said Zhang.

Brazil swept Thailand 3-0 for their 10th win in 12 tries while Japan rallied past Belgium 3-1 to share a 9-3 record with Turkey.

Also on Monday, South Korea outlasted Canada 3-2, Germany whitewashed Poland 3-0, the Netherlands lost to Dominican Republic 3-1 and Russia overwhelmed Serbia 3-0.

The sixteen teams will have three days off with the last week of women's round-robin preliminaries to take place from Friday to Sunday. The top four finishers from the preliminaries will qualify for the semifinals.