Americans wallop Dominicans

MANILA, Philippines —When the United States last played in the country during one stretch of the Volleyball Nations League four years ago, the Americans swept all their four matches.

And they have no plans on conceding a single match either on their much-anticipated Philippine return.

The three-time VNL champions lived up to their billing and preyed on the helpless Dominican Republic, 25-20, 25-19, 25-12, yesterday at the start of Week 2 of this year’s VNL edition at the PhilSports Arena.

“We knew the Dominican Republic was strong and we’re familiar with a lot of their players so practicing, training and trying to gel together as a group was our priority since it was a new roster this week,” said USA spiker Jordan Thompson, who erupted for a match-best 15 points including 13 off kills.

“It wasn’t pretty but we really had to grit through it,” she added.

The result sent the former Olympic and World Championship gold medalist to third with 11 points on four wins in five outings, behind leader Brazil and No. 2 Japan in this event supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

The Dominicans, in contrast, remained at the bottom with just a point to show.

Thompson was also happy to finally get to play in the country after failing to make the team that wowed the crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in 2022.

“I was supposed to come here a few years ago but I got COVID so I couldn’t travel,” she said. “I was really excited to come here. You guys are so incredibly kind and joyful so I really appreciate it.”

The United States plays Czechia today, world No. 1 Italy on Saturday and Serbia Sunday with hopes of sweeping it all like they did in 2022.

In the second game, world No. 1 Italy dumped Czechia, 25-18, 25-21, 25-22, to zoom to the top with 13 points.

The Czechs stayed at sixth with nine points.