Hangzhou, China, October 2, 2023 – China, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan captured top spots in respective pools to become Top 4 title contenders at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 Women’s Volleyball Competition, as daunting challenges await teams in next round matchups of the continental multi-sports extravaganza.
Participating teams strutted their stuff on Monday, the last day of the pool round-robin preliminaries, to fight for two berths on offer for the top two teams from each pool to make the cut for Top 8. Lower-ranked teams finishing 3rd and 4th places from each pool will be relegated to classification round for ranking 9-13.
At Hangzhou Normal University Cangqian Gymnasium, Japan pulled off scintillating 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-13) win against Kazakhstan in Pool D, Korea demolished Nepal 3-0 (25-21, 25-14, 25-11) in Pool C and Hong Kong, China crushed Afghanistan 3-0 (25-2, 25-7, 25-3) in Pool D. The encounters at Deqing Sports Center Gymnasium saw Thailand overcome Mongolia 3-0 (25-14, 25-20, 25-12) in Pool B and China put it past DPR Korea 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-8) in Pool A.
Japan, world No.9 and well-earned fourth place at the previous 18th edition of the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, fielded a mixed team of seven players from the 22nd Asian Senior Championship in Thailand and five new competitive forces led by outside hitter Minami Uesaka, middle blocker Shion Hirayama and setter Koyomi Iwasaki.
Against Kazakhstan, whose height average is 180cm, the smaller-built Japanese opened an early lead in the opening set with a 7-point clear at 15-8 and stayed in control until middle blocker Haruyo Shimamura produced an ace to hand the team the set point at 24-16. Opposite Tatyana Nikitina saved the day for Kazakhstan with an aggressive attack before Japan wrapped up the first set 25-17.
Riding the momentum, the Japanese remained in exceptional form to break away on a 12-6 run and never looked back. Kazakhstan bounced back to come up with some crucial points and reduce the gap 20-24, but it was too late to start some kind of a comeback. Japan went on their attacks to win the thrilling set 25-20.
The third set became one-way traffic as Japan totally controlled the game. The lead was as wide as 10 points when the Japanese had a tremendous performance, firing some fine attacks and aces for 17-7. They were able to extend it to 22-12, allowing the Kazakhs only one more point to seal the one-sided set 25-13 and match.
Outside hitter Minami Uesaka…
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