Korea, China, Thailand, Japan advance to Asian Games semis Koreans Lee Dayeong and Bae Yoona combine to successfully block Hong Kong’s attack Incheon, Korea, September 27, 2014 – Hosts Korea, defending champions China, Thailand and Japan routed their respective rivals in the quarterfinals of the Asian Games women’s volleyball competition on Saturday to book their spots in the semifinals. Hosts Korea pulled off a convincing 25-13, 25-15, 25-11 victory over Hong Kong in the first match to set up a tough semifinal against Japan, who lost to Korea 0-3 in the pool competition. Japan outclassed Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-16) in the last match of the day. Defending champions China demolished India in the second quarterfinal 25-11, 25-12, 25-10 to pit their expertise against Thailand, who ran over Kazakhstan 25-10, 25-10, 25-10. The semifinal matches are scheduled to be held on September 30 while the finals will be held on October 2. Korea 3, Hong Kong 0 Korea kept key spikers captain Kim Yeonkoung and Han Songyi on the bench, but the hosts still only needed 64 minutes to trounce Hong Kong. Korea had more blocks than Hong Kong, 11-2, and had an impressive service game with nine aces. Korea also had a huge advantage in attacking, 35-21. Korea earned 20 points off unforced errors and limited their turnovers to only 14. Korea’s Yang Hyojin scored 13 points, followed by Bae Yoona with 12 points. The best scorer for Hong Kong was Lo Ka Yan with seven points. Korea started the game really well. They took the early lead at 6-2 and then scored two consecutive points from Yang’s aces to reach the first technical time out 8-4 ahead. Then Korea made an 8-0 run, mainly due to errors made by Hong Kong, extending their lead to 16-5 at the second technical timeout. Korea continued their dreadful attacking and blocking, finishing the set 25-13. Hong Kong played better at the beginning of the second set as Tsang Sze Nga and Lo Ka Yan unleashed some good attacks. Korea led 8-6 at the first TTO and, as they did in the first set, made eight points in a row. Hong Kong tried hard to make a comeback, but the big margin was too much to overcome. Hong Kong found some rhythm and took the lead 4-1 in the third set, but Korea came back to overtake their rivals for an 8-4 lead. Hong Kong did not give up and rallied back with determination. They once narrowed the gap to only one point at 12-11, after which the Korean offensive and defensive game became more effective. Attacks from Park Jeongah and Baek Mokhwa helped the team to 16-11, after which Hong Kong was unable to score again. Korea coach Lee Sungoo said: “Today’s opponents were comparatively weak, but our strategy to put non-key players in the game left much to be desired. We will meet the winner of the match between Japan and Chinese Taipei in the semis and both are weaker than us. We are going to win.” China 3, India 0 Having an absolute advantage in all aspects, especially in terms of height, China dominated India with a straight-sets (25-11, 25-12, 25-10) win in only 54 minutes. Twelve of India’s 33 points came from China’s errors. Their best scorer was the 171cm-tall S. Rekha, who had seven points. Chinas top scorer was 189cm Zhang Xiaoya, who scored a total of 13 points, eight from attack, three from services and two from blocks. Zhang Changning, Liu Yanhan and Wang Qi each earned 10 points. Although India scored the first point at the beginning of the game, China returned to lead 8-5 at the first technical timeout and spiked their way to 16-5 at the second one. In the last period of the set, India snatched some points by attacks from V. Soumya. However, China spiked with accuracy while India’s attacks were not stable enough. The Chinese finished the set comfortably at 25-12. The second set started with successful spikes from Rekha and the scores were tied at 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5. With the help by Liu Yanhan, China surged ahead 8-5 at the first technical timeout and then 16-6 with a series of powerful attacks by Zhang Changning. The gap was maintained to the end of the set with a spike from Zhang. The Chinese maintained their powerful attacks in the third set and took advantage of good combination work between the setter and attackers, keeping the game under complete control. They led all the way from 8-2 to 16-5 and finished the set at 25-10. Chinese coach Xu Jiande said: “The teams we played so far were not strong. The key matches have yet to come. I fielded all 12 players to play in this match in preparation for the coming hard games.” Thailand 3, Kazakhstan 0 A determined Thai team showed its excellent teamwork to pull off a 3-0 (25-10, 25-10, 25-10) victory over Kazakhstan in the third match of the quarterfinals. Thailand opened the first set aggressively against Kazakhstan. Pleumjit Thinkaow combined well with captain Wilavan Apinyapong and the unstoppable Onuma Sittirak to score points easily that put Thailand in front 16-6. The Thai team, led by Sittirak, methodically penetrated their opponents’ defence, as team-mates Wilavan and Pleumjit produced solid blocks on the defensive side. Thailand sealed the first set 25-10. Thailand’s attacking game managed to find more rhythm in the second set with timely attacks from Sittirak, who provided the firepower to help the Thai team move ahead quickly and win by the same score, 25-10. The third set saw Thailand storm into a quick lead, 8-3. With Thatdao and Apinyapong operating through the middle, they took a 16-5 advantage by the second TTO. Though winning some points from Thai mistakes, Kazakhstan soon surrendered the third set, again by 25-10. Thailand dominated Kazakhstan in attacks 50-12 and service aces 7-3, but Kazakhstan outscored Thailand in blocks 6-3. Thai coach Srisamutnak Nataphon said: “We had a light game today, so we did not have much pressure. We need to prepare for the match against China and improve our ability.” Onuma Sittirak and Nuekjang Thatdao were the top scorers for Thailand with 14 points, followed by Wilavan Apinyapong on 10. Japan 3, Chinese Taipei 0 Japan outshined rivals Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-21, 25-17, 25-16) to end the quarterfinal matches. Chinese Taipei started the match well with a 5-3 lead at the first technical timeout after good counterattacking. In response, Japan improved their attacking against their opponents’ left forward and narrowed the gap to 7-8. The Japanese were leading 16-15 before moving ahead 23-21. With one block and two attacks from Saori Takahashi and Rika Nomoto, Japan took the set 25-21. The second set went almost the same way as the first as Japan were slow in the beginning while Chinese Taipei established an 8-6 lead at the first technical timeout. But Chinese Taipei’s engine suddenly stopped as Japan fought back to lead 16-11 at the second technical timeout and they were unable to catch up. Japan started off strong in the third set and jumped to an 8-5 and 11-7 lead, forcing Chinese Taipei to take a timeout. After that Chinese Taipei recovered to 12-11. At the juncture, the players from Chinese Taipei seemed to lose their concentration and Japan sparked a 4-0 run to move to 16-11. From then on, the Japanese offence set the pace causing trouble to Chinese Taipei. Japan surged to a 23-15 lead and took the set 25-16. Japan had an impressive service game with six aces and outscored Chinese Taipei in attacks (42-33) and blocks (8-6). Japan earned 19 points off unforced errors and limited their turnovers to only 13.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 14:02:18 +0000
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