Japan Beats USA in 2022 Volleyball Nations League Week 1
Table of Contents
- What Is the Volleyball Nations League
- Japan Stays Unbeaten and Shocks USA
- Thailand Pulls Off a Big Upset Against China
- Germany Wins Its First Match of the Tournament
- Italy Beats Netherlands to Climb the Rankings
- Why Week 1 Mattered for the Rest of the Season
- Early Standings After Week 1
- FAQ
- Related Articles
What Is the Volleyball Nations League
The Volleyball Nations League, known as VNL, is an annual international volleyball tournament organized by the FIVB. Both a men's and a women's competition run each season. Teams play a series of round-robin matches across several weeks in different host cities around the world. The top teams from the round-robin stage then move on to a finals event, where a champion is crowned.
The competition was created to give the world's best volleyball nations a longer, more structured season of high-level matches outside of the Olympics and the World Championship. Since its launch, the VNL has become one of the most closely watched events on the international volleyball calendar, partly because it forces teams to travel to different host cities and adjust to different conditions from week to week.
The 2022 season brought together some of the strongest women's volleyball nations in the world, including reigning Olympic champions USA, tournament regulars China and Italy, and rising teams like Thailand and Japan. Every team enters the round-robin stage looking to build early momentum, since a slow start can make it much harder to qualify for the finals later in the season. The opening week of matches set an early tone for the rest of the competition, with several results that surprised fans and reshuffled expectations before the tournament had even reached its halfway point.
Read the full 2022 FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League preview for a look at how the season was expected to unfold.
Japan Stays Unbeaten and Shocks USA
Japan had a brilliant start to the 2022 Volleyball Nations League. After the opening week, they were the only team in the women's competition without a single loss.
The Japanese players won all four of their matches in Shreveport-Bossier City, USA. They saved their best performance for the last match of the week. Japan beat the United States, the reigning Olympic champions and three-time VNL winners, in straight sets. The final score was 25-22, 25-20, 25-20.
Japan is well known on the international circuit for a fast, precise offense built around quick sets and disciplined defense rather than raw power. Their teams are typically shorter on average than European and American squads, so Japanese coaching staffs have long focused on speed, ball control, and serve-receive quality to make up the difference. That style was on full display against the United States, a team many expected to dominate the opening week given their Olympic pedigree and their three previous VNL titles.
USA head coach Karch Kiraly gave Japan credit after the match. He said Japan played a genuinely good match and their short serves caused his team a lot of trouble. Short, low serves are a common tactic against taller, power-focused teams like the USA, since they force the receiving team out of their rhythm and disrupt their usual attacking options. When a serve lands short, the passer has to move forward quickly, which often throws off the timing of the entire offense that follows.
This win moved Japan to the top of the early standings and set the tone for the rest of the tournament. A four-match unbeaten run in the opening week, capped by a win over the Olympic champions, gave Japan real credibility as a contender heading into the following weeks of competition. For a team that is not always mentioned among the pre-tournament favorites, a result like this can also be a confidence boost that carries through the rest of the season, especially against teams that have not faced Japan's tempo before.
Thailand Pulls Off a Big Upset Against China
On Sunday, Thailand delivered one of the biggest surprises of the week. They beat a strong Chinese team in a tense five-set battle, winning 3-2 with the set scores 25-23, 13-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-11.
The win handed China its first loss of the tournament. China had been considered one of the favorites in the competition, given their strong recent history in Asian and world volleyball. Thailand, by contrast, are usually viewed as a team capable of competing hard but not always closing out matches against the sport's traditional powers. Beating a team of China's caliber in a full five-set match is exactly the kind of result that changes how a team is perceived for the rest of a tournament.
The match swung back and forth. China took control in the middle sets, winning both by a wide margin, and looked to be pulling away. A team that wins two sets by double-digit margins usually has the momentum to close out a match, so Thailand's response in the fourth and fifth sets was significant. Thailand fought back from behind in the match and held their nerve in the deciding set, closing it out 15-11 to complete the comeback. Coming back from a two-sets-to-one deficit against a top-ranked opponent takes composure, especially in the final set, where every point carries extra pressure.
Thai player Ajcharaporn, who had a strong performance in the match, spoke about what the win meant to the team. She said they were not playing for themselves that night. They were playing for their country and for every Thai fan supporting them. That kind of statement reflects how much national pride is tied to Thailand's volleyball program, which has built a passionate following at home over the past decade. Thai fans are known for being among the most vocal supporters in Asian volleyball, and results like this one against China tend to generate significant excitement back home.
See how China responded in the following week: China Beats Italy: VNL 2022 Week 2 Results.
Germany Wins Its First Match of the Tournament
Germany picked up their first win of the 2022 Volleyball Nations League after three matches. They beat South Korea, who had reached the Tokyo Olympic quarterfinals, in straight sets. The final score was 3-0, with sets going 25-22, 25-15, 25-16.
German player Orthmann was the standout performer, scoring 22 points in the match. A 22-point outing is a significant workload for a single player across just three sets, and it shows how central Orthmann was to Germany's attack that day. Teams that lean heavily on one or two key attackers early in a tournament often need that player to perform at a high level in order to convert close sets into wins, and Orthmann's output did exactly that.
The win came after early losses to Brazil and Japan, giving Germany some momentum heading into the next round of matches. Opening a tournament against two of the strongest teams in the competition, Brazil and Japan, meant Germany faced a difficult early schedule. Facing top-tier opponents right out of the gate can make it hard for a team to get its first win on the board, even if the underlying performances are competitive. Getting that first win against a quality opponent like South Korea was an important step, both for confidence and for their position in the standings, since points from the round-robin stage carry through toward qualification for the finals.
Italy Beats Netherlands to Climb the Rankings
Italy also had a strong week. They picked up their second win of the tournament with a straight-sets victory over the Netherlands in Ankara. The scoreline was 3-0, with sets finishing 25-19, 25-15, 25-15.
The margins in each set tell the story of the match. Italy started with a comfortable but competitive first-set win before pulling away in the second and third sets, both of which finished 25-15. That kind of scoreline usually reflects a team finding its rhythm as the match goes on, especially in serve and block coordination. A team that starts tightly and then pulls away in the following sets is often adjusting well to its opponent's tactics after the first exchanges, tightening its blocking patterns and settling into a more consistent attacking rotation.
The win pushed Italy up to third place in the current rankings after the opening week of competition. For a team with Italy's volleyball pedigree, a fast start like this is exactly the kind of foundation needed heading into the busier middle weeks of the VNL schedule, when travel and a condensed match calendar can start to wear teams down physically.
Why Week 1 Mattered for the Rest of the Season
The opening week of any VNL season carries extra weight because it sets the baseline for the rest of the round-robin stage. Every match played in week 1 counts the same in the standings as matches played later in the season, so an early loss to a lower-ranked team, like China's defeat to Thailand, can create pressure that a squad has to work off over the following weeks.
For teams like Japan and Italy, a strong week 1 means they can approach the middle stretch of the season with a cushion in the standings, giving their coaching staffs more flexibility to rest key players or experiment with lineups against weaker opponents. For teams like Germany, who started slowly against Brazil and Japan before finding their first win, the challenge is different: closing the gap on the teams above them while still adjusting to a long, multi-week international schedule.
Results like Thailand's win over China also matter beyond the standings. They show younger or historically weaker programs that they can compete with, and sometimes beat, the traditional powers of the sport, which can shape how those federations invest in their programs going forward.
Early Standings After Week 1
Based on the results from the opening week, Japan sat at the top of the table as the only unbeaten team, having won all four of their matches. Italy followed in third place after two wins. Germany had one win on the board after their victory over South Korea, following losses to Brazil and Japan. China suffered their first loss of the tournament against Thailand, while the United States dropped their match to Japan despite entering the week as reigning Olympic champions.
These early results do not decide the tournament, since VNL runs across multiple weeks before the finals stage. But they gave fans an early look at which teams were finding form quickly and which ones still had work to do. As the season moves into its next weeks, matches like these tend to be revisited when teams are close in the standings, since head-to-head results and set ratios can end up deciding who advances to the finals. See how the format continued in 2026 Women's VNL Week 3: Schedule, Results and Standings.
FAQ
1. Who won the 2022 Volleyball Nations League Week 1 opener between Japan and USA?
Japan won 3-0 against the United States, with set scores of 25-22, 25-20, 25-20.
2. Was Japan undefeated after the first week of the 2022 VNL?
Yes. Japan won all four of their matches in the opening week, making them the only unbeaten team at that point.
3. What was the score when Thailand beat China?
Thailand won 3-2, with set scores of 25-23, 13-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-11.
4. Was this China's first loss of the 2022 Volleyball Nations League?
Yes, the loss to Thailand was China's first defeat of the tournament.
5. Who scored the most points for Germany against South Korea?
Orthmann led Germany with 22 points in the 3-0 win over South Korea.
6. Where was the Japan vs USA and Germany vs South Korea match played?
Both matches were played in Shreveport-Bossier City, USA.
7. What was the result of the Italy vs Netherlands match?
Italy won 3-0, with set scores of 25-19, 25-15, 25-15.
8. What is the Volleyball Nations League?
The Volleyball Nations League is an annual international volleyball tournament run by the FIVB, featuring round-robin matches across several weeks followed by a finals event.
9. Why did week 1 results matter for the rest of the 2022 VNL season?
Every match in the round-robin stage counts equally toward qualification for the finals, so a strong or weak week 1 can affect how much pressure a team faces in the following weeks.