Day 3 Wrap-Up
Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, April 27, 2023 – Hisamitsu Springs suffered another setback after stunning loss to hosts Sport Center 1 and Liaoning Donghua stopped Altay’s remarkable run on action-packed Day 3 of the 2023 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship at the 3,000-seater Vinh Phuc Gymnasium, as Khuysgul Erchim celebrated debutantes Mongolia’s first-ever win since the tournament inception in 1999.
Cheered on lustily by home crowds at the packed venue, Vietnam’s Sport Center 1, powered by devastating Tran Thai Thanh Thuy and young star Vi Thi Nhu Quynh, 21, added another agony to the same wounds of Hisamitsu Springs on Thursday.
Going down in hard-fought five-setter to in-form King Whale Taipei in their first clash the previous day, the 2002 and 2014 Asian Women’s Club champions and winners at the Japan’s 2021/22 V. League Division 1 were sent packing by the formidable Vietnamese counterparts in dramatic four sets 20-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-25.
Following their two straight losses in Pool A, Hisamitsu Springs now have a slim chance of making the cut for the top four. Pool A featured only four teams, Hisamitsu Springs, King Whale Taipei, Sport Center 1 and Iran’s Paykan. With only top two teams through to the cross semifinals, Hisamitsu Springs find it very, very difficult to advance to that round.
Claiming only one point from their first match which they lost 2-3 to King Whale Taipei, Hisamitsu Springs now have only one match left against Paykan in the pool round-robin preliminaries.
Sport Center 1, on the other hand, were on cloud nine as they have brightened up chances of making the top four as they have already bagged 5 points from two wins in a row including their thrilling 3-2 clash against Paykan and will fight it out with King Whale Taipei on Saturday, the last day of the preliminaries. The strong team from Chinese Taipei kicked off their campaign with a hard-fought five-set win against Hisamitsu Springs. They are due to take on Paykan on Friday and look set for a tough match against hosts Sport Center 1 the following day.
Meanwhile, in the Pool B encounters on Thursday, China’s Liaoning Donghua VC, fresh from exceptional straight-set win against Khuvsgul Erchim on the first day, pulled off an upset win against Altay VC to power past the 2021 champions from Kazakhstan in sensational straight sets 25-19, 25-22, 25-21.
Against Liaoning Donghua, the team finishing 7th at Chinese V. League in the current…
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