Isa Town, Bahrain, June 7, 2024 – Star spiker Zhang Jingyin scored a match-high 27 points as China bounced back to beat Australia in hard-fought five-set thriller 21-25, 25-21, 23-25, 25-19, 17-15 to next battle it out with Vietnam for the fifth place in the 2024 AVC Challenge Cup for Men at the Isa Town Sport City Hall 3 here on Friday.
Contesting the Classification Round for 5th-8th places, China, which picked up silver medal at the reschedule Hangzhou Asian Games last year and the winners at the 2022 AVC Cup in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, were relegated from last year’s VNL by virtue of being the bottom-ranked nation in the 16-team field and are attempting to find their way back to the world-class competition.
As hosts, China are assured of automatically securing a slot in the FIVB Challenger Cup between July 4 and 7 in Linyi, but under the guidance of new head coach Belgian Vital Heynen, the Chinese team are in Bahrain to sharpen their skills and prove their talents against strong teams in this top-tier tournament. Though out of title contention, China proved well they are one of the formidable teams to be reckoned with in the near future.
In the first set, world No.35 Australia, which finished fifth at the previous edition last year in Chinese Taipei, brewed a solid blend of defence and offense orchestrated by opposite Matthew Aubrey and outside hitter Thomas Heptinstall to lead China all the way. An ace service from Heptinstall brought Australia to the set point 24-20, but his service error in his second attempt gave China another breath of air. However, Australia dashed the Chinese hopes of comeback as the hefty 209cm-tall Aubrey hammered a deadly cross-court kill for the Aussies’ 25-21 win.
Conceding one set, China stormed back in the second set, with skipper Jiang Chuan and star spiker Zhang Jingyin overcoming the Australian blockers with exceptional attacks to help the team lead 24-20. China allowed the tall rivals one more point from the left-hander opposite Aubrey’s attack before the 207cm outside hitter Zhang Jingyin fired a thundering mid-court spike to help China clinch the set 25-21.
The next two sets turned out to be see-saw battle, with Australia, led by Aubrey and Ethan Garrett, winning the hard-fought third set 25-23 and Zhang Jingyin, whose playmaking steered his team with 8 points, and opposite Wang Jingyi instrumental in lifting the China’s 25-19 win in the fourth set, forcing the tie-breaker to determine the eventual…
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