VNL 2021 – Week 1 Review

Week 1 of Volleyball Nations League 2021 has ended after 3 days of competition, with 3 teams still unbeaten.

Japan stands on the top of the table after defeating all 3 other Asian teams on straight sets.

“We have had a great start in the tournament, and we want to continue it this way. We will do our best also in the next matches.” commented Japanese player Mayu Ishikawa after the match against Korea, their final match in week 1. It would be the first time for Japan to qualify for the final round of the annual volleyball competition (previously FIVB World Grand Prix) since the 2015 World Grand Prix held in Omaha if they can stay in top 4 of the leaderboard.

The two-times VNL champion USA and Turkey are the other 2 teams yet to be beaten. USA surpassed China in the FIVB senior world rankings to be ranked #1 after their outstanding performance in week 1.

“Winning three matches for three points is huge. It’s good to start the tournament this way.” commented the USA outside hitter Wilhite Parsons after the match against Brazil. Turkish opposite Ebrar Karakurt has also said that she is happy with the performance of the team.

Six teams (Netherlands, Serbia, Brazil, China, Serbia, Russia and Germany) have two wins after week 1 while South Korea, Dominican Republic and Poland have one win each.

Meanwhile on the bottom part of the table, four teams (Italy, Belgium, Canada and Thailand) have yet to win a match.

Sylvia Nwakalor, player of team Italy, said that they must forget the negative things, and strengthen on the positive aspects that they have shown.

Britt Herbots from team Belgium is also disappointed with the results after the game against Germany, their third match of week 1. “Now we have some days to rest and recover and for the next game we have to be not just 100% ready, but 200% or even 300%.” she commented after the game against Germany.

Canada player Alexa Grey commented the following after the match against Dominican Republic. “Our goal is just to become better. We are a young team, we are trying to get used to each other and we are playing here for the first time as a squad. So we hope to improve.”

This is the first time for Canada to participate in Volleyball Nations League. The last time Canada played in the annual volleyball competition (previously World Grand Prix) is in 2017, where they played in the group 2 of the tournament and ranked #20 in the overall ranking.

Malika Kanthong from team Thailand said that they have three days off and will try to improve every skill in this period, because their team made many mistakes this week.

Week 2 of VNL will start at 31^st May 2021. Make sure you don’t miss out the exciting matches!

(Feature image source: FIVB)

(Written by Boris CHUNG Bok Man)