Photos courtesy of Vietcontent
Japan’s PFU BlueCats sealed dramatic win against U20 Vietnam to extend their winning streak in the 14th VTV9-Binh Dien Cup International Women’s Volleyball Tournament at Buon Ma Thuot City Gym in Dak Lak Province, Vietnam on Tuesday, as Binh Chung Thong Tin Truong Tuoi Binh Phuoc ended the unbeaten run of LPBank Ninh Binh.
On the last day of the pool round-robin preliminaries, PFU struggled to beat U20 Vietnam in hard-fought four-setter 25-22, 22-25, 25-23, 25-13 to top Pool A and become the only team not to concede a match, while Ninh Binh succumbed to 1-3 (25-27, 23-25, 25-15, 22-25) loss to BCTT TT Binh Phuoc, but still captured the top spot in Pool B.
PFU, winners at the Kurowashi Tournament in 2022/23 season, have already secured their berth in the semifinals after respectively beating VTV Binh Dien Long An 3-1 and HCDG Lao Cai 3-0 to bag a total of 6 points from the first two days and on Monday, VTV Binh Dien Long An survived a scare from HCDG Lao Cai to beat the younger compatriots 3-2 to complete their pool preliminaries in respective second and third places in Pool A with 4 points apiece.
In their last preliminary encounter against the losing-streak U20 Vietnam, PFU BlueCats, with two key players Cuban-born Melissa Valdes and Kisa Okuma on the sidelines, faced a stiff challenge from the young Vietnamese, powered by outside hitters Bui Thi Anh Thao and Dang Thi Hong. However, PFU bounced back, with middle blocker Aya Hosonuma carrying out lightning fast spikes and Reina Kawasaki and Kiiro Omura attacking devastatingly at the net, to narrowly beat U20 Vietnam 25-22 in the close first set.
After conceding one set, U20 Vietnam pulled their game together and started to produce the goods, with Bui Thi Anh Thao and Dang Thi Hong puncturing the Japanese defence with their attacks to help the home side take the second set with the same margin 25-22.
The third set was the similar script as embattled PFU found the young Vietnamese a tough nut to crack. However, the Japanese still had enough to hold their rivals off in the home stretch to clinch the tightly-contested set 25-13.
The fourth set was one-way traffic as the Japanese came up with a perfectly fast-paced game and beautiful back-row attacks to capture the comfortable set 25-13 and match.
Both sides had three players apiece reaching double digits in scoring, with Aya Hosomuma scoring a match-high 18 points from 13 kills, 2 blocks and 3 aces for PFU….
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