Hangzhou, China, July 3, 2023 – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iran clinched the remaining three tickets for Top 8 after defeating their respective rivals on the last day of the pool round-robin preliminaries of the 1st Asian Women’s U16 Volleyball Championship at Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province and the host city for the coming Asian Games, on Monday.
Following a stunning 2-3 loss to Thailand on Sunday, Kazakhstan staged another five-set thriller and a terrific comeback 3-2 (29-31, 23-25, 25-11, 25-14, 17-15) victory against Hong Kong, China in their last preliminary encounter at Linping Sports Centre Gymnasium.
With captain Sum Yuen Tang firing some lightning-fast attacks, Hong Kong, China made a strong start to lead 3-0 in the first set. Kazakhstan committed unforced errors often and were trailing behind all the way until 17-20. However, thanks to Karina Balmukhambetova’s effective serves, Kazakhstan captured the lead for the first time 22-21. From then on, the lead changed hands before Kazakhstan committed two consecutive attacking errors which cost them dear. Hong Kong, China claimed the closely-contested opening set 31-29.
Going down one set, Kazakhstan still could not hold their nerves, allowing their opponents many attack opportunities to trail 3-7. To improve on their tactics and form, Kazakhstan asked for a timeout and their intention paid off impressively after that. The Kazakhs fought back to level it at 18-18. After a few smashes, Hong Kong, China still had enough to hold the opponents off with their double blocks to reach the set point at 24-21. They allowed Kazakhstan only two set points saved before outside hitter Kai Yu Lin attacked devastatingly to help Hong Kong, China grab the thrilling set 25-23 for two sets in a row.
Kazakhstan came to life in the third set as they overcame their unforced errors and came up with efficient attacks. The set turned out to be a lopsided battle which Kazakhstan took only 20 minutes for the easy 25-11 win.
In the fourth set, middle blocker Balaiym Koilybayeva produced three well-placed serves in the beginning, helping Kazakhstan gain the upper hand for an impressive 9-2 lead. Hong Kong, China made their prompt reply with Hoi Ching Michelle Yiu’s great serves, narrowing the margin 7-10.
However, the Kazakhs increasingly gained their confidence to deal with such difficult situation. They took the height and strength advantage to widen the gap and from there, never looked back to win…
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