USA hand first loss to Japan to challenge

Poland for VNL 2026 crown

August 1, 2026.- The United States handed Japan their first defeat of the 2026 edition of the men’s Volleyball Nations League to advance to Sunday’s final against defending champions Poland. The Americans outlasted the strong Asian squad in a thrilling five-set semifinal in Ningbo Beilun, China on Saturday. Japan had to settle for advancement to the bronze medal game against Slovenia.

In front of nearly six thousand fans in the stands of the Ningbo Beilun Sports and Arts Center, USA produced a 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 20-25, 25-19, 15-13) victory over Japan and advanced to the VNL final for the fourth time in history. In the previous three cases, they always settled for silver. Japan, on the other hand, will play in the third-place playoff for the second time. The first time, in 2023, they took the bronze.

The game started better for Japan. They took a 5-2 lead in the first set and kept it up until 12-9. With opposite Jake Hanes taking a leading role, USA gradually caught up and stepped in front. Their blocking made big difference in this set, which was eventually won by the Americans by a six-point margin. Middle blocker Taylor Averill brought in set point by pushing an overpass to the floor before the set ended with an out-of-bounds attack by Japan’s outside hitter and captain Yuki Ishikawa for 25-19.

However, Ishikawa took charge in the next set and spearheaded his team to leveling the score. Once again, Japan took an early lead, but this time they managed to hold on to it through the end. A block-out kill by Ishikawa made the score 24-21. USA denied two set points, including one with a blistering ace by Averill, but on the third, middle Larry Ik Evbade-Dan put away his first-tempo attack off the American block to close it off at 25-23 Japan’s way.

Set three followed a similar pattern; only now opposite Yuji Nishida was on fire on the Japanese side. He put away as many as 10 points towards the final set score of 25-20. The first set point that came after Ishikawa managed to squeeze the ball between the American blockers and the net was denied, but on the second a long serve by Hanes served the set in Japan’s hands.

Two back-to-back aces by Hanes put USA at a 7-5 lead and started an American surge that led to pushing the match to a tie-breaker resolution. Outside Cooper Robinson fired a sizzling ace for 24-18 and Jeffrey Jendryk put away the set-winning point through the middle for 25-19.

A spectacular long rally, with some out-of-this-world defense on both sides of the net was finished by sub-in opposite Kento Miyaura with a block-touch spike for 12-11 Japan’s way and that was the only moment of the fifth set, when the Asian side was in the lead. The next three points were for the United States: a serving error by Nishida, a perfectly placed ace by outside Ethan Champlin and kill by Robinson led to match point, which was shortly after converted to a 15-13 close with a thunderous swing by outside Matthew Anderson.

USA outperformed Japan in attack by 67-57 in successful swings, in net defense by 9-7 in kill blocks, and in serving by 7-2 in aces. Jake Hanes (three aces, one kill block) and Matt Anderson (one ace, two blocks) shared the top scorer honors with 24 points apiece. They registered a 61% and a 53% success rate in offense, respectively.

“They are a really good team. They play all aspects of the game really well. So, we just had to be a tiny bit better in certain situations, and that’s what we did,” Anderson told after the match. “Now we’ve got to get back and get some sleep, because it’s hard to come back tomorrow. Poland have a lot of power and a lot of guys that can come off the bench and keep maintaining that level. So, we have to stay at our consistent level the entire match from point zero to point 25.”

Japan managed to make fewer unforced errors then their opponents – only 25 against 35 – but that did not suffice for a victorious ending. Yuji Nishida was their best scorer with 19 points, including three blocks and two aces. Yuki Ishikawa added another 18, including two blocks, while outside Ran Takahashi finished with 13 points.

“It was a great match, I think. First of all, congrats to the US team! We played well, but didn’t get a good result,” Ishikawa commented. “Now we have another match to get a good result tomorrow. We have to clear our minds, and we have to prepare for the match and play better.”

The bronze medal match between Slovenia and Japan on Sunday will serve off at 15:40 local time (07:40 UTC) and the final showdown between Poland and USA is scheduled at 19:30 (11:30).