Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, April 30, 2023 – In-form Hisamitsu Springs showed no mercy to Hip Hing to crush the Hong Kong, China team in a completely one-sided encounter in the classification round for 5th-9th places in the 2023 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium on Sunday.
The exceptional 25-9, 25-9, 25-15 win handed Hisamitsu Springs, the 2002 and 2014 Asian Club champions, their second win in Pool E, which combined teams finishing 3rd-4th places from Pool A and 3rd-4th-5th places from Pool B to compete in classification round in Pool E for 5th-9th places of the championship.
The Japanese outfits had earlier beaten Iran’s Paykan, the fourth place in Pool A, 3-1 in the pool round-robin preliminaries. Hisamitsu Springs succumbed to two straight losses in Pool A comprising 2-3 to King Whale Taipei and 1-3 to Vietnam’s Sport Center 1, resulting in their failure in making the cut for the semifinals.
Hisamitsu, third place in Pool A, performed well up to their level in their Sunday’s match against Hip Hing which turned out to be an easy encounter. Hisamitsu fielded many substitutions including Akari Shirasawa, setter Erika Sakae and Ayane Kitamado, but remained strong offensively with the likes of hard-attacking Megumi Fukazawa.
The Japanese got off to a good start to lead with a 7-point clear at 10-3, making use of spectacular attacks from Fukazawa and Kitamado. Moments later, the lead was extended to 21-7 when the Japanese came up with a series of powerful spikes from every corner. Hip Hing, the only team which have yet won a single match in this championship, tried hard to recover from the poor start. However, their attempt did not pay its dividends as Hisamitsu stormed on to win the comfortable set 25-9.
The second set was still dominated by Hisamitsu when Kitamado attacked powerfully at the net to put the team in front 10-3 and advanced 17-8. The Japanese allowed Hip Hing only one more point from a sharp shot from Yick Wing Sum to run away with the victory and the same margin 25-9.
Hisamitsu set an early pace in the third set to lead with a 3-point clear at 8-5. However, Hip Hing did not want to give up easily as they put their acts together and fought back to win some crucial points. Still, Japanese rookie Kitamado proved to be a great asset to Hisamitsu as she attacked devastatingly at the net and combined well with Asuka Hamamatsu for some solid blocks.
The Japanese went ahead 24-14, needing only one more point to end the rivals’ challenge. Still, a spike from Fukazawa went wide and one point was awarded to Hip Hing. However, the rivals; delight was short-lived as the Japanese moved on to win the more competitive set 25-15 and match.
Ayane Kitamado scored a match-high 21 points including 17 points and 3 blocks for Hisamitsu Springs, with Akari Shirasawa and Ayaka Araki adding 11 and 9 points erspectively. No Hip Hing player scored double digits, with Chim Wing Lam bagging only 6 points.
In his interview, Hisamitsu Springs head coach Shingo Sakai commented on his team players and praised them.
“We want to win this match easily, but the team from Hong Kong, China played tough and we had to play very hard to beat them. Today, we changed many players in the lineup including small-built Shirasawa (164cm) and rookie Kitamado (182cm). Kitamado is 19 years old and she has already joined the Japan national U21 team to compete in the Women’s U21 World Championship later this year in Mexico. As far as I’m concerned, Kitamado is Japanese rookie with high potential. She is tall and good in defence. I think she is growing up and making a progress.
“We will next play Khuvsgul Erchim tomorrow. We will try our best to beat them. Our last match on Tuesday will be against Altay. They are very tall with good players and foreign players in their team. We have to prepare well and do our best.”
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