Imoco will take on the Club World Championship hosts for the title on Sunday
China’s Tianjin Bohai Bank qualified for their first-ever FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship final and on Sunday, at 19:30 local time (11:30 UTC), at the Huanglong Sports Center in Hangzhou, the hosts of the 2024 edition will take on the 2022 club world champions, Italy’s Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano. Earlier on Sunday, at 15:00 (07:00), Brazil’s Dentil Praia Clube Uberlandia will face the other Italian team in the competition, Numia Vero Volley Milan, in the bronze medal match.
- Watch the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship on VBTV
In Saturday’s first semifinal, Tianjin Bohai Bank put on a solid blocking effort that made the big difference towards their 3-1 (25-23, 25-21, 24-26, 25-22) victory over Brazil’s Dentil Praia Clube Uberlandia, that and their captain Li Yingying’s fantastic performance.
In front of nearly three thousand fans on the stands, the Chinese star outside hitter spearheaded her team with an amazing match high of 32 points, including the match winner that came with a successful back-row hit. Li spiked at a 51% success rate and raised two of Tianjin’s 20 kill blocks in the match. An impressive eight stuffs were authored by Russian middle blocker Irina Fetisova, who finished with a total of 17 points. Outside Wang Yizhu and opposite Chen Boya added another 16 and 10 points, respectively. American opposite Nia Reed was Dentil Praia’s most prolific player with 23 points. Middle blocker and captain Adenizia Da Silva and Russian outside Sofya Kuznetsova added 12 points each, while the other outside, Monique Marinho Pavao, fired four of the team’s six aces to finish with 11 points.
With 20 kill blocks against 11, that was, in fact, the only scoring element in which Tianjin outdid Dentil Praia. The two teams were level on spike kills (63 each) and on unforced errors (12 each), while the Brazilian side outserved the winners by 6-4 in aces.
Tianjin are participating in a Club World Championship for the fourth time. They will be the first Chinese team ever to play in the final. Their previous best result was the bronze they claimed last year by beating Dentil Praia in the third place match. The Brazilian team will play in the bronze medal match for the second straight time, hoping to improve on last year’s fourth place, which was their best result in the history of the competition.
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In the second semifinal, Prosecco Doc Imoco Conegliano hammered out a 3-0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-23) shutout of Italian compatriots Numia Vero Volley Milan and progressed to their third Club World Championship final in three participations, after 2021, when they took silver, and 2022, when they triumphed as world champions.
Imoco have cruised to Sunday’s gold medal match as the only team in the tournament who have not lost a single set so far. Vero Volley, on the other hand, are Club World Championship rookies, and they will try to decorate their debut with a medal by winning Sunday’s third-place match against Dentil Praia.
Playing in her native China, Imoco’s outside hitter Zhu Ting led the team to victory in Saturday’s semifinal with 15 points, including the match winner. Swedish opposite Isabelle Haak added another 14 points, including two aces, while Brazilian outside Gabriela Guimaraes (Gabi) put away 12. Vero Volley’s star opposite Paola Egonu was the best scorer of the match. She delivered a match-high 22 points and was her team’s only player to reach the double digits.
The Imoco players celebrate during the semifinal
2024 FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship: schedule and results
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