Final wrap-up with teams commenting on their performances in the Championship
By Maryam Hessaby
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, October 7, 2021 – Altay brought the curtain down on the 2021 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship on a high note after stunning home-crowd favourites Nakhon Ratchasima QminC VC in hard-fought three-set thriller 25-22, 25-22, 25-20 in the final clash at Terminal 21 Hall on Thursday.
Altay not only captured the maiden victory in the one-week championship, but also secured a berth for the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship in Ankara, Turkey from December 15 to 19, 2021. Shortly after learning that they won the prestigious Asian Club title, the Kazakh players and staff coaches jumped for joy, hugged one another and were all-smiles.
Formidable Altay had already proved to be the strongest team in the 2021 edition, losing only one set to Iran’s Super League champions Saipa en route to winning their debut title.
After a fourth-place finish for four times in a row at the previous four editions (2016-2017-2018-2019), Altay made much of the impact in the 2021 edition to reign supreme.
“First of all, I would like to thank the organisers and Thailand for hosting this Championship since it’s not easy to organise a tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regarding the final match, I’m very happy that my team won the title. They played well against the strong Nakhon Ratchasima. This victory is very important and I do hope that Kazakhstan people should be proud of it. Now, we are ready to go to Ankara for the Women’s Club World Championship,” Altay head coach Serbian Marko Grsic commented after the win.
Hosts Nakhon ratchasima QminC VC were also proud of making their home fans happy by winning the first-ever medal in the Asian Club Championship after they finished a disappointing 5th in 2014.
“Altay were in their top form today. They were really hard to fight with. They had a good blocking game and first serve, which always scored and put us into trouble. We tried to fight back, but it was too late. I would like to thank all to help organize this event especially Nakhon Ratchasima province and its people to give us full support to make this event a remarkable experience for everyone,” Nakhon Ratchasima’s Nootsara Tomkom, who landed the Best Setter award, commented after the match.
“I would like to apologize to Nakhon Ratchasima people and all Thai fans for losing the final match. Altay had a very tough and solid game with fewer mistakes. Our team had many unforced errors in the game. We had many turning points to change the game but we could not make it. We need to learn from some mistakes and improve our game. Anyway, I was so proud of my team for their tireless effort until the last minute of the game, but we were not in our top performance today,” Thanakit Inleang, Nakhon Ratchasima head coach, said.
Meanwhile, Supreme Chonburi, silver medallists at the previous edition in China two years ago, had to be content with the bronze medal following a convincing straight-set 25-21, 25-18, 25-19 win against Saipa in a Pool B rematch in the third-place playoff.
Nataphon Srisamutnak, Supreme Chonburi head coach, said, “My team did their excellent job today. I think we had perfect reception with aggressive game while performing effective blocking. Although Saipa tried to push us under pressure by their services, we managed to get the game going. We finished 3rd place in this tournament as a gift for home fans. We need to make use of the experiences we had gained from this tournament to prepare ourselves for upcoming Thailand League competition.”
“Actually, ahead of the kickoff of the Championship, we had set our initial goal to advance to the final, but we could not make it. However, at least we got the bronze medal and that had boosted our team spirit up high,” he added.
Meanwhile, Zhetysu completed their campaign in 5th place as they overcame the play-off challenge from Choco Mucho to pull off a dramatic 25-14, 25-11, 25-23 win. The Philippine side finished 6th position.
Tyler Kalei Mau, outside hitter of Choco Mucho, said: “I think, the future of the Philippine volleyball program is going to be very bright as long as we continue to bring up each other and build on the national team program. I think it looks good. The younger girls showed really great performance and if we just keep on building up a core of the national team, I believe we can get better. There’s only going up from here.”
Arthur Mamon, Choco Mucho head coach, said: “Although we have been really erratic the past few days and started on the wrong foot, you can see the improvement each day we play.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Rebisco, another team from the Philippines, took the 7th place overall after going down to Choco Mucho in dramatic four sets in the 5th-8th playoffs match and Rebisco were relegated to the classification round for 7th-8th place, where they received a bye.
In the awards presentation and the closing ceremony, Altay stood proudly on the top of the podium to capture the Champions Trophy and gold medal. The silver medal went to hosts Nakhon Ratchasma QminC VC, while Supreme Chonburi came in third place for bronze medal.
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