Phanom Penh, Cambodia, September 1, 2024 – Hosts Cambodia made it three in a row at the inaugural SEA V. League Challenge at National Olympic Stadium here, as Malaysia pulled off a comfortable win in their last preliminary match against Laos.
Cambodia, silver medallists at the last year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games on home soil, captured the first two wins in the single round-robin competition consisting of 3-1 against Malaysia and 3-0 against Laos. On Sunday, the final day of the preliminaries, the Cambodians still came up with their brilliant performance after 3-1 (25-20, 25-10, 23-25, 25-18) demolition of Singapore.
The Southeast Asian Volleyball Association (SAVA) President Mr Somporn Chaibangyang, himself President of Thailand Volleyball Association, and AVC Executive Director Mr Shanrit Wongprasert were also present at the competition venue to witness the two matches, with approximately 3,000 home fans turning up to support their team.
Opposite Thy Menghuong and outside hitter Koun Mom were on fire to help the host side take the thrilling first set 25-20. The second set turned out to be one-way traffic as Cambodia, taking the advantage when the Singaporeans became more prone with unforced mistakes, dominated the opponents, offensively and defensively to claim the totally one-sided set 25-10.
Conceding two straight sets, Singapore fought back hard and their more determination bore fruits handsomely with the narrow 25-23 win in the closely-contested third set. The spirited visitors remained in aggressive form in the fourth set, but their offense was limited by the much stronger Cambodians, who eventually captured the set 25-18 and match.
Opposite Thy Menghuong scored a match-high 20 points from 17 kills, one block and 2 aces for Cambodia, while outside hitter Koun Mom and middle blocker Phol Ratanak added 11 and 8 respectively. Outside hitter Wong Jordan Ryan led Singapore with 12 points including 11 attacks from 24 attempts.
Cambodia dominated all elements in skill which featured kills (43 to 40), blocks (13 to 4), aces (7 to 1) and also benefitted from more opponent errors (35 to 28).
Earlier, Malaysia, which swept Singapore 3-0 in the previous match, managed a 3-0 (25-11, 25-21, 25-14) shutout of Laos to clinch their second win in the four-day tournament.
Hard-attacking J Q Sim proved an unstoppable force in the Malaysia’s lineup, unleashing back-to-back attacks to steer the in-form team to close out the match in comfortable straight sets.
Opposite Jian Qin Sim was the only player who score double digits in this match as the chipped in 17 points from 14 kills and team-leading 3 blocks for Malaysia. Outside hitter Muhammad Fahmi Madzlan and middle blocker Ryan Tan Teng Wei contributed 9 and 6 points respectively. Opposite Chanthanvong Chanmina scored 7 points, all in attack, on the Laos’ loss.
Malaysia proved their superiority over Laos to dominate all skills. They performed much better in kill (38 to 21), getting 11 stuffs to the rivals’ 2, aces (4 to 3) and also benefitted from more opponent errors (23-20).
After completion of hectic three days in the preliminaries, hosts Cambodia finished atop the four-team standing with 9 points from three straight wins, followed by Malaysia with 6 points from two wins against one loss. Singapore finished third with 3 points from one win against two losses, with winless Laos on the bottom fourth place with no point awarded.
With the cross semifinals being held on September 2 to determine the two winners in the showdown, Cambodia will take on Laos at 8am local time, while Malaysia will renew their rivalry with Singapore at 10am. The two winning teams will face off against each other in the final showdown at 7pm on the same day. The two losing teams will fight it out in the third-place playoff for bronze medal.
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