China defeats Brazil, to battle Poland in VNL Finals semis

ARLINGTON, United States -- China emerged victorious over Brazil, with a 3-1 score, in Thursday's third quarter-final of the 2023 Volleyball Nations League (VNL) tournament held in Arlington, Texas.

Owing to aggressive tactics and superior blocks (15-6), China won the intense competition with sets scored 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, and 25-23.

Li Yingying, the 23-year-old outside hitter, topped the team with 16 kills, while 26-year-old Gong Xiangyu contributed 14 in offense.

China captain, Yuan Xinyue, praised as "a wall at the net" by volleyballmag.com, recorded seven blocks and six kills. At a crucial juncture in the fourth game, with the score 22-22, she thwarted Julia Bergmann and Tainara Santos consecutively. Despite the Brazilians making a successful kill thereafter, they conceded the final point by serving into the net.

"There were two significant moments. The first was during the initial set when the score was 17-17; the Chinese coach called a timeout, and his team responded well. The second was in the fourth set, when the score was 18-18. He called another timeout, and they responded positively to secure the match," Lee Feinswog, co-publisher and editor of volleyballmag.com, told Xinhua.

"China executed a truly great game today," said Brazil Captain Gabriela 'Gabi' Guimaraes, highlighting not just Li's impactful offense but the overall exceptional performance of the Chinese team.

In the match, the Brazilians surpassed China in kills (60 to 49) and aces (eight to one), but committed significantly more errors (30 to 15).

Looking ahead to the Saturday semifinal against top-seeded Poland, Chinese coach Cai Bin affirmed his team "will adjust accordingly based on Poland's offense and their whole playing system."

"We are going to fight harder," Cai declared. Poland had defeated China 3-0 in the preliminary round and had bested Germany 3-1 (25-12, 21-25, 25-21, 26-24) in Wednesday's first quarter-final match, just hours before the United States topped Japan in four sets (25-23, 25-21, 18-25, 25-18).

The United States is slated to face Türkiye on Saturday, following the latter's sweeping victory over defending champions Italy, 3-0, in Wednesday's last quarter-final game.

The VNL, the world's premier annual international indoor volleyball tournament, has narrowed down the 16 initial teams to eight following 96 matches that concluded on July 2.

The medal matches are scheduled for Sunday.