Lausanne, Switzerland, May 31, 2018 - USA and Brazil stormed through Week 3 of the 2018 FIVB Women's Volleyball Nations League picking up full points, and Serbia also squeezed in after outlasting Turkey, as the three sides sit at the top of the table on 8-1 records, past the halfway point of pool play.
The Netherlands, who were amongst the leaders going into Week 3, suffered their second defeat in the hands of Brazil at home in Apeldoorn.
Furthermore, Russia's win in five sets over Turkey in Kraljevo, in combination with another defeat for Turkey to Serbia, creates a new dynamic over the last two weeks of pool play in the race for a last ticket to the Final Six.
Tandara Taixeta celebrates, flanked by Roberta Ratzke and Carol da Silva, as she twice scores above 30 points this week in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League.
These are the highlights of Week 3:
• USA's latest run of straight-set wins, over Germany, the Dominican Republic and Thailand, which improves the winning streak of the reigning world champions to seven (all in three sets).
• Brazil's latest three wins over Korea, Poland and the Netherlands, which extends the South Americans' winning streak to eight matches.
• The return of Rio 2016 Olympics MVP Zhu Ting to the lineup of China, for which she top-scored in all three matches of Week 3 (though not enough to beat Italy).
• Tandara Caixeta's 33 points in Brazil's 3-1 win over Korea in Apeldoorn. The 29-year-old makes a new entry at No. 3 in the VNL 'over 30s' club. She topped that up with a further 31 points against the Netherlands for another entry at No. 5.
• Eda Erdem's tournament-high 7 aces for Turkey against Russia.
• Russia's tournament-high 22 blocks in five sets against Turkey. This tied the performances of Serbia versus Germany (in 3 sets) and Brazil versus Japan (in four sets), both from the opening week at Barueri.
• Malwina Smarzek's continuing top scoring performances which has the 21-year-old Pole firmly at the top of the best scorers table on 212 points. Tandara follows in second place with 178 points and Germany's Louisa Lippmann is third on 177.
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