Seoul, Korea, August 19, 2019 – Gallant Australia recovered from their Sunday’s narrow loss against Kazakhstan to produce a terrific comeback 3-1 (18-25 25-17 25-16 25-22) win against India in their Pool B clash at the 20th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship at Jamsil Studentss Gymnasium on Monday.
Australia struggled to react to India’s nimble movement at the beginning of the first set which saw the Indians take an early 8-1 lead. After that, the Australians improved their tactics to produce the goods with counter-attacks. Agnieszka Kudziela became Australia’s key attacker as she was on fire, bringing the team back on track with her sensational attacks. However, Australia still made several defensive errors at crucial moments and India seized the opportunity. Effective blocking by S Soorya and powerful attacks from Abraham Minimol helped india take the first set 25-18.
Going down one set, Australia started solidly in the second set with Agnieszka Kudziela unleashing explosive attacks. However, S Soorya, who did a great job in the first set, coped well with the rivals’ attacks. At 14-14, India were error-strewn on reception. Australia went on their attacks to win the second set 25-17.
Australia kept their momentum going in the third set. Thanks to their solid blocking, Australia faced no serious issues in claiming the third set 25-16.
The fourth set turned out to be a seesaw battle, with leads changing several times. After the score was levelled at 18-18, India failed to overcome the rivals’ blocking. Australia used their height advantage to block effectively and attack aggressively to win the hard-fought set 25-22 and match.
“I am very happy for our first victory in this tournament. We started slowly at the beginning, but all the players did their best until the end. We had matches in Vietnam before coming here and I selected the same members for a combined team. It worked well,” Australia head coach Martin Collins said after the match.
Team captain Jaimee-Lee Morrow added, “Our unity was today’s winning factor and we will try to keep going with these spirits.”
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