Bangkok, Thailand, July 31, 2021 – Super star Kim Yeon Koung scored a match-high 30 points to power Korea to incredible tie-break win against reigning and consecutive two-time Asian champions Japan in the Tokyo 2020 volleyball tournament at Ariake Arena in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday.
Korea needed a crucial win in this highly-anticipated match to guarantee a spot in the quarterfinals. Ahead of the clash, Korea had 5 points from 2 wins against one loss to stay at the third place at Pool A standings, while Japan collected only 3 points from one win to come in 5th position in the Pool.
It was a see-saw battle on Saturday as Korea took the hard-fought first set 25-19, dropped the second set 19-25, recovered to claim the third set 25-22 before going down the lop-sided fourth set 15-25, forcing the tie-break with the host side.
Korea and Japan poured everything they had to win the deciding set which saw both sides locked in a very tight contest. Japan rediscovered their mojo. As Sarina Koga remained a constant threat from spike range, Erika Araki’s well-placed serves and blocking ability proved a thorn in the Korean attacks.
Japan narrowly led 14-13, needing only one more point to capture the victory. However, they let it slip through their fingers. Korea hit back bravely to catch the Japanese at 14-all and went on their fine form to score two points in a row for the eventual 16-14 win.
Kim Yeon Koung chipped in with 30 points including 27 attacks and 3 solid blocks, while Park Jeongah and Yang Hyo Jin added 15 and 12 points respectively.
Promising star Sarina Koga, who earlier sustained an injury during the Japan’s Olympic opener against Kenya, came back to lead the charge for her team and scored impressive 27 points including 26 attacks. Mayu Ishikawa kept good company to bag 23 points on the team’s losing efforts.
With only four teams in each pool advancing to the quarterfinals, world No.2 Brazil, world champions Serbia and Korea have already booked their places, leaving only one more berth to decide the winners between Japan and Dominican Republic on Monday, the final day of the pool round-robin preliminaries.
Korea will play their last preliminary match against Serbia on Monday. Win or loss, Korea, together with Serbia, already made the cut for the quarterfinals. Japan, on the other hand, will fight all out with back against the wall in their tough match against Dominican Republic. In this last hurrah, Japan need a must-win match against the strong Dominicans to win the last ticket up for grabs for the quarterfinals.
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