Ningbo, China, September 21, 2023 – Top 3 seeds continued their winning streak with 2-0 wins against their rivals respectively on Day 3 of the 19th Asian Games Women’s Beach Volleyball Competition here at Xiangshan Beach Volleyball Center.
No. 1 seeds Xue/Xia of China registered their third successive victory as they emitted destroying services including remarkable aces to conquer Kabulbekova/Ivanchenko of Kazakhstan in a comfortable 2-0 (21-10, 21-5) win.
No. 2 seeds Naraphornrapat/Kongphopsarutawadee of Thailand also tallied their third win as they edged out No. 10 seeds Juliana/Ratnasari of Indonesia 2-0 (21-18, 21-15). The Indonesia duo thus tasted their first failure following 3 wins in a row.
Indonesia came into the match solidly with a narrow lead, and they seized every chance to earn points until 15-10 lead. Thailand committed several errors but they did not lose concentration. With the improvement of their chemistry, they came back with a 6-1 run to even the tide at 16-16. Indonesia requested a timeout but it was feeble to stop the momentum of Thailand. Following two forced errors, Indonesia yielded the first set 18-21.
The second set saw Indonesia fight hard to keep themselves in the match till 9-10 behind. Thailand gradually geared up to widen the gap and finished the set 21-15 following a tricky ace service.
No. 3 seeds Mizoe/Ishii of Japan also had accumulated 3 wins in Pool C after beating Yuen/Lo of Hong Kong, China 2-0 (21-8, 21-11) in the morning and Law/Leong of Macao, China 2-0 (21-7, 21-12) in the afternoon.
In Pool D, No. 4 seeds Hasegawa/Sakaguchi of Japan recovered from their 0-2 loss to Wang/Dong of China on Wednesday, enjoyed two victories on Thursday.
In the morning session , they capped Rachenko/Ukolova of Kazakhstan 2-0 (21-9, 21-11) and in the afternoon they knocked down Sari/Herdanti of Indonesia 2-0 (21-8, 21-18).
Indonesia showed their persistence in the second set by sticking to the opponents till 16-18. But their effort was in vain as the experienced Japanese requested a timeout and took control of the situation before they finished the set in 21-18.
“Height is our disadvantage. So we have to train more our techniques and ball control.”said Hasegawa Akiko of Japan. “We have been paired since 2021. In the past months, we have participated in several stops of World Tours and National Tours before we came to the Asian Games. I hope we can have a good result here.”
In the other four matches,…
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