Manila, Philippines, August 15, 2017. The Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship has came to the white hot stage- China, Japan, Korea and Thailand advanced to Semifinals of Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship.
Four semifinalists all defeated their opponents in straight set 3-0. However, the Olympic champions China played a difficult match against Kazakhstan. The Chinese girls won it in three sets but they have a very difficult job, especially in the last two sets, 3-0 (25-16, 34-32, 25-23). After the game, head coach of China team Bao Zhuang commented: “I have to give credit of success to all of my team players. As a young team, they played with hearts. Kazakstan are very powerful and to beat them, my young team had to play with high spirits and consistency. In fact, my team are very, very young players. Since famous players are preparing for the 13th National Games of China at the end of this month in Tianjin, the Chinese Volleyball Association decided to send this young team to the Asian Championship here. I’m very glad that my team made it to the semi-finals although there is no China national player in the squad.”
Led by star player Kim Yeon Koung, Korea team straight set won over Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-20, 25-11, 28-26) but encountered some difficulty in the third set but Kim Yeon Koung and her teammates managed to take over and won the match. Kim Yeon Koung was the top scorer with 17 points. Their main player Yang Hyojin suffered from a minor injury during yesterday’s match against Philippines. Providing an update on Yang’s condition, the team captain Kim shares: “Her back is not so good. She is trying to do therapy at the hotel. Tomorrow we will see if she can play.”
Japan and Thailand played an easy game relatively, The Japanese girls overpowered Vietnam in 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-16), while Thailand defeated the host team Philippines without any difficulties 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-20). Head coach of Thailand commented after the match: “It’s a tough match indeed. The Philippines played well before their home crowds. Their reception was good beyond our expectation. I admit that we had difficulty in scoring points from them.”
Source and Photo: AVC
