Hangzhou, China, July 2, 2023 – Asian powerhouses Japan, Thailand and hosts China captured top spots in their pools following their back-to-back wins in pool round-robin preliminaries of the 1st Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province, on Sunday.
Thailand and Kazakhstan set up the championship’s first five-set thriller, seeing the former edge out the latter with comeback 3-2 (23-25, 25-11, 25-14, 23-25, 15-8) win after a grueling 140-minute seesaw battle at China Textile City Sports Centre Gymnasium.
Both sides came into the match to trade points until 6-6 tie before Kazakhstan strengthened their service aggressiveness featuring some aces to gradually establish a 16-9 lead. Thailand requested for a timeout and made some substitutions thereafter. It worked out well as the Thais stabilized their reception for attacks and chased up to 21-23. Kazakhstan asked for timeouts twice at the very end of the set and their middle blocker Balaiym Koilybayeva stood out to finish the close set 25-23 after a long rally.
Conceding one set, Thailand played a strong start in the second set to lead with a four-point clear at 5-1. Though Kazakhstan made some adjustment through timeouts and substitutions, they committed more mistakes while the Thais firmly controlled the situation with their diversified attacks and consolidated defence. Thailand took the lopsided second set 25-11 to level it at 1-1.
Kazakhstan could not reduce their unforced mistakes in the beginning of the third set to trail 4 points behind 1-5. A timely timeout requested by Kazakhstan relieved themselves from the predicament as they gradually chased up to even the score at 7-7. However, the Thais performed better in attacking especially from both wings and they again widened the gap before wrapping up the comfortable set 25-14.
As Thailand came up with some ups and downs in the fourth set, the Kazakhs took a good chance to keep themselves in the tussle all the way. Thailand challenged seriously for points and then scored 3 points in a row for a slim 23-22 lead at the home stretch. However, the Thais just let the victory in possible four sets slip through their fingers as Kazakhstan bounced back heavily after the timeout to score back-to-back points, leveling it at 23-23 and stormed on to win the hard-fought set 25-23.
Both sides gave it all what they had in the decider, but Kazakhstan remained in aggressive form to lead initially 8-6. The stubborn…
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