Jiangmen, China, July 6, 2024 – Japan lived up to their billing, as the defending champions stopped the Korea’s remarkable unbeaten run with dramatic 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20) win against the determined opponents to top Pool F in the last 8 stage of the 22nd Asian Women’s U20 Volleyball Championship at the Jiangmen Sports Center Gymnasium here on Saturday.
Outside hitter Miku Akimoto scored a match-high 33 points from 26 kills, 5 blocks and 2 aces for Japan, while fellow outside hitters Anna Uemura and Sae Omori kept good company to contribute 17 and 15 points respectively. Middle blocker Lee Jiyun chipped in 17 points including 14 attacks from 35 attempts on the Korea’s loss.
Japan and Korea remained unbeaten ahead of their confrontation in this match, but it seemed Japan came up in full force, fielding a strong lineup led by the 168cm-tall Anna Uemura, who played in the gold-winning Japan team at the previous edition in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan two years ago and landed the Best Outside Hitter and MVP awards to her name. The team were also strong in their offensive system, orchestrated by the 185cm-tall Miku Akimoto and powerful Sae Omori. Korea also had formidable players in middle blocker and skipper Kim Sebeen, outside hitters Lee Jua and Shin Eunji.
Uemura led the Japan’s offense with her powerful attacks and terrific jump serves which helped the team take an initial 9-7 lead before they broke away with four straight points, thanks to Omori’s spectacular spikes at the net. After that, Japan entirely dominated the game. Korea upped their tempo, but could not cope well with the Japan’s incredible speed and power and excellent combination attacks. Akimoto fired an off-speed kill to bring Japan to set point 24-17, but Lee Jiyun saved the day for Korea with her fast spike. However, Korea’s fightback was short-lived when Akimoto came from behind to attack devastatingly for the first set win 25-18.
The second set was more competitive as both sides did their best with efforts of initially gaining control. Japan’s consistency and spectacular display made the difference when they narrowly led 14-13 and extended it to 21-18, making the most of their powerful attacks from Uemura, Omori and Akimoto. Korea bounced back heavily, with the 188cm Lee Jiyun unleashing dazzling front-row attacks to help the team catch up at 22-22 and went on for comeback 25-23 win in the set.
Conceding one set, Japan pulled their game together, with Uemura,…
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