?Players line up before the match between Brazil and the United States at the 2019 FIVB Volleyball Nations League Finals Women in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu province, July 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Li Bo)
NANJING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States defeated Brazil 25-18, 25-19, 20-25 and 25-21 to win Pool B at the FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League (VNL) finals here Friday afternoon.
With the victory, the Americans will take on either Italy or China while Brazil plays Pool A winner Turkey in the semifinals on Saturday. China will play Italy later in the evening to vie for the other semifinal berth.
Opposite spiker Jordan Thompson had a commanding 33 points for the United States, with teammates Jordan Larson and Mikaela Foecke combined for 25 points, while Geraldo Teixeira Lorenne scored 21 points for Brazil, with wing spiker Braga Guimaraes Gabriela, known as Gabi who scored the most 250 points for Brazil during the VNL finals, playing only the last few minutes without any scoring attempts.
Throughout the match which lasted for one hour and 54 minutes, the Americans were better in every aspects, with 64 spike points against 49, 10 blocks against four, seven serve aces against two, and 14 errors against 28.
The match started as the United States led 16-12 at the second technical timeout. After Brazil managed to cut the deficit to one point at 19-18, the American women scored the last six points in a row to take the first set 25-18.
In the second set, the United States committed four serve errors to help Brazil go ahead 8-7, but overtook the lead 16-15 with solid defense and took it 25-19 in a hurry.
Brazil was not to give up easily, rallying back from 6-8 down to lead 16-14 at the second technical timeout, enlarged further to 19-16 and took the third set 25-20 with a pair of solid blocks.
The United States lagged behind by three points to start the fourth set, tied for the first time at 7-all and went ahead at 17-14. After Brazil managed to claw back to one point at 18-17, the United States led comfortably at 21-19 when Gabi played her first minute of the match but failed to reverse the tide as the Americans scored two more points to 23-19 en route to their victory.
