As the pool round-robin preliminaries of the 2023 AVC Challenge Cup for Men in Chinese Taipei came to a close on Monday, excitement reaches fever pitch, with top two teams from each pool (totaling 12) contesting a single-elimination knockout format to strive for their slots in Top 6.
Participating teams tried to give their best on Monday, the final day of the pool play to decide the top two teams in each pool, resulting in plenty of exciting moments, from high-scoring feats, returning and incoming stars, down to spectacular plays.
The Monday’s encounter saw three teams from South East Asia comprising Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia fared pretty well to pull off great wins against their respective opponents.
The opening clash in Pool D between Philippines and Mongolia turned out to be a thrilling see-saw battle. As Philippines finished fifth place at this year’s South East Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia, Mongolia came in fourth place at the last year’s AVC Men’s Challenge Cup in Kyrgyzstan.
Hard-hitting Marck Jesus Espejo scored a match-high 36 points from 29 attacks, 2 blocks and 5 aces to steer Philippines to terrific comeback 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 26-24, 23-25, 15-12) victory against Mongolia and two wins on the trot in the preliminaries at Taipei Gym.
Fresh from 3-0 rout of Macao, China the previous day, Philippines captured the top spot in Pool D with 5 points from two straight wins. Mongolia came in second place in the Pool with just one point behind the Filipinos, leaving winless Macao, China to finish in third place.
In Pool B, world No.60 and former consecutive four-time SEA Games champions Thailand, which earlier succumbed to a straight-set loss to formidable Korea, revived their fortunes on Monday to demolish Saudi Arabia, second place at the previous edition in Kyrgyzstan last year, in comfortable three-setter 25-20, 25-16, 25-17 at the University of Taipei Hall.
Anut Promchan chipped in with 15 points including 12 attacks from 24 attempts for Thailand. No Saudi Arabian player scored double-digit marker, with Jawad Alkhawaher claiming 8 points on the team’s losing effort.
Defending and successive three-time SEA Games winners Indonesia also made their mark in their tough Pool F clash against Bahrain.
Star spiker Rivan Nurmulki was on fire as the determined Indonesians struggled hard to finally put it past the spirited Bahrainis in hard-fought five-set thriller 33-31, 25-27, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11 in the preliminaries at University of Taipei Hall on Monday.
Rivan scored massive 35 points including 34 attacks from 50 attempts for Indonesia. Mohamed Abdulla Yagoob remained a key weapon of Bahrain as he scored 26 points including 22 attacks and 2 aces on the team’s loss.
Following completion of the pool round-robin preliminaries on Monday, hosts Chinese Taipei topped Pool A, with Korea, current world No.33 and third place at the last year’s FIVB Volleyball Challenger Cup in Seoul, leading the pack in Pool B. Hong Kong, China captured the top spot in Pool C, while Philippines, Australia and Indonesia topped Pool D, Pool E and Pool F respectively.
The drawing of lots was held later on Monday at the University of Taipei Hall for the third-ranked teams in each pool, which were assigned in Pool G and will next compete in a round-robin format for ranking 13th-15th.
At the same time, the second-ranked teams in each pool were drawn to pair with the first-ranked teams in each pool. This resulted in 6 matches to be contested in the single elimination of the Top 12, with the six winning teams through to Top 6 and the losers relegated to Classification Round for 7th-12th places.
According to the drawing of lots results of the Classification Round for 1st-12th places on Monday, Chinese Taipei will fight it out with Vietnam, Korea take on Mongolia, Indonesia challenge Kazakhstan, Philippines play Bahrain, Australia face off against Macao, China and Thailand meet Hong Kong, China.
Tuesday is a rest day for recovery for all participating teams. Certainly, sports enthusiasts and volleyball fans in particular are eagerly waiting for the kickoff of the single elimination to burst into action-packed clashes on Wednesday when the tournament resumes its intriguing matchups.
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