Surprising Dutch victory removes Japan from top of the standings

A second Dutch victory in the Volleyball Nations League 2022 caused a significant change at the top of the standings with three-time defending champions the United States taking the first place from Japan in the early stages of Week 3 in Calgary, Canada, on Wednesday.

Ranked 14th in the VNL, the Netherlands generated arguably the biggest upset of this year’s edition so far with their 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 24-26, 25-21, 15-10) win over Japan, which took down the last undefeated team in the event.

The upset allowed the Americans, who topped Belgium in straight sets (25-16, 25-21, 25-19), to catch Japan, with each team now on eight victories and 24 points. The USA took top spot because of their better set ratio (six to 3.71).

· Watch all VNL 2022 matches live on Volleyball TV.

The Japanese weren’t able to extend their winning streak in the VNL 2022 to nine matches despite the excellent performance of team captain and star outside hitter Sarina Koga, who left the court as the top scorer of the match with 31 points (all in kills).

The Dutch, who had claimed their only win so far in the VNL in their last match in the second week against Korea, benefited from a more collective approach in offence, which led to all five starting hitters ending the match with 16 points or more. The Europeans also dominated the game at the net, outscoring the Asians in blocks by 16 to two.

Outside hitter and captain Anne Buijs was the team’s most productive player, with 22 points registered in 19 kills and three blocks. Fellow outside hitter Fleur Savelkoel added another 20, including the game-winning point, with 17 kills and three blocks of her own.

“I’m so happy and so proud of my team,” Buijs commented. “Everybody did a great job today, including our substitutes and the coaching staff. We put a lot of effort and worked really hard in defence and we were very brave in offence. It took us a little while to adjust to their speed and their combinations, but we felt we were playing well in the first set even though we lost it. It’s a big win for us and it will for sure help us a lot with our confidence.”

Volleyball Nations League 2022: Schedule and results

Opposite Celeste Plak and middle blockers Juliet Lohuis and Eline Timmerman reached 16 points each, with Plak generating her entire production in kills, Lohuis tallying nine kills, four blocks and three aces, and Timmerman registering 12 kills, three blocks and one ace.

“Winning this match brought a really good feeling to us,” Timmerman reacted. “We didn’t start the first two weeks well and now we managed to win two matches in a row. Japan have a really fast offence and I think one of the keys was serving well, it really helped us.”

The victory has kept the Dutch hopes of qualifying for the Final Phase alive and their next match in Calgary will be on Thursday, against Türkiye, at 14.00 local time (20.00 GMT). Japan will be back on the court on Friday, also against the Turkish.

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