The undefeatable Japan women’s team produced a fantastic comeback 3-2 (20-25 16-25 25-19 27-25 15-12) victory over determined Thailand in the hard-fought final of Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship in Thailand on 21 May.
Both Thailand and Japan team have already booked their tickets to the 2017 FIVB Volleyball Women’s U23 World Championship in Slovenia from September 10 to 17 following their Saturday’s wins in the semi-finals against Vietnam and Chinese Taipei respectively.
Thailand took the first two sets 25-20 25-16 by their impenetrable defence and Ajcharaporn Kongyot’s deadly spikes. However, Japan roared back to win the following two sets 25-19 27-25. In the fifth set, Japan fared much better, minimizing their mistake and captured the set 15-12 and the championship.
“It was a very difficult match as we expected. Thailand played extremely well in the first two sets while we made too many errors especially on our service. Thailand are very strong on their side-out attacks and they adapted well to our game plan. Then we tried to adapt our system in the next two sets by fielding our players from the bench to the court and they played very well. We trained together for two weeks before this championship. I am very happy that we finally won this tournament. For our preparation to the World Championship, in this match our players made a lot of mistakes, so we have to adjust and change something to our players before participating in the world meet,” Japan’s head coach Kiyoshi Abo commented after the match.
Final standings:
- Japan
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Chinese Taipei
- Kazakhstan
- Hong Kong
- Malaysia
- Iran
Photo and Source: AVC
