China upsets top-ranked U.S., joins Turkey in VNL semifinals

[Photo: Renato Marques]

Team USA, the top-ranked team in this year’s Women’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL), faced a major upset against host China (3-2) in a match at Macau’s East Asian Games Dome.

On paper, the match that closed the quarterfinals should have gone to the Americans, but that was not the story.

Starting the match strongly, the USA won the first set (25-15) but, after that, it struggled to receive China’s powerful serves and lost too many points on balls played on the limit.

[Photo: Renato Marques]

Taking full advantage of this phase of the Americans’ decline, China gained confidence and, boosted by the support of a home crowd of 4,400 spectators, won the following two sets (25-23, 25-20).

Seeing its chances of continuing in the tournament slipping through its fingers, the USA team went back to work and managed to tie the match at 2-2 with a clear 25-17 victory in the fourth set.

And when everyone was already expecting the comeback to be complete, came the fifth-set tiebreaker, in which China played all its cards for a place in the semifinals.

[Photo: Renato Marques]

In the most closely contested match of the VNL Finals so far, China eventually came out on top with a final 15-13 victory in the fifth set, sealing a 3-2 win in a 133-minute match.

Among the standout performers, the USA team featured Jordan Thompson (24 points) and Dana Rettke (18 points), while for China, Zhuang Yushan (17 points) and Gong Xiangyu (15 points) led the way.

Team China, which qualified for the final stage of the VNL as the host, secured a place in the final four in a somewhat unexpected way, where it will now meet Turkey, winners of the other quarterfinal match of the day.

[Photo: Renato Marques]

Turkey vs. Canada

Previously earlier in the afternoon, Turkey and Canada were involved in a thrilling match of unpredictable outcome.

Canada started better and won the first set (25-22), to which Turkey immediately responded in the second (25-21).

In the third set, Canada started better again, maintaining a lead on the scoreboard by as many as five points (17-12). Then, suddenly, Turkey staged a fast recovery after a timeout by the Turkish coach, leading to a tie at 17-17. From then on, the lead changed hands repeatedly, with the teams trading points.

Still, Turkey did not lose momentum, increasing the gap in the last few points for a final score of 25-21, matching the score of the previous set.

Continuing its streak, Turkey dominated the fourth and final set, commanding and controlling the scoreboard on the way to a 25-17 victory and a 3-1 match win.

[Photo: Renato Marques]

Top 4 to clash tomorrow

China and Turkey now join the previously qualified teams from Wednesday’s matches, Italy and Brazil, for the semifinals tomorrow.

The semifinal matches, besides China vs. Turkey, will see Brazil take on Italy as the tournament enters its final stage.

Taking into account the results so far this year, Turkey and Italy have the upper hand in advancing to the grand finale on Sunday evening, but so did the USA before failing to reach the semifinals.

In this phase of the tournament, the teams are so evenly matched that a single individual performance can make the difference.

As the Times has also already reported, the defeated teams from Saturday’s semifinals will still move into the last day of the tournament (Sunday), facing each other for the final position on the podium and the bronze medal.

Last year, Italy was crowned the champion of the VNL, beating Brazil in the final match 3-1. Poland, absent from this year’s finals, was third last year; Japan finished fourth; China finished fifth; and the USA placed eighth.

Last year’s win gave Italy its third VNL title, tying the USA at the top for the most VNL titles (three each). Italy has also won the previous two editions (2024 and 2025), while the USA’s titles came in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Turkey won the 2023 edition.