Bangkok, Thailand, August 2, 2021 – China ended their Olympic campaign in tears despite putting up a good fight against Argentina to beat the lacklustre rivals in straight sets in their last preliminary Pool B clash in the Tokyo 2020 volleyball tournament at Ariake Arena in Japan on Monday.
With only top four teams in each Pool advancing, both China and Argentina missed the cut for the quarterfinals. China finished fifth in Pool B with 7 points from 2 wins against 3 losses, while winless Argentina came in sixth position in the group with no point awarded.
China crashed out of the Tokyo 2020 and it sparked emotional scenes at the end of their match against Argentina, China’s legendary coach Lang Ping hugged her players, many in tears. They sadly left the competition venue with shattered dreams and broken hearts as they failed to make their mark this time and lost their Olympic title achieved five years ago in Rio de Janeiro before millions of fans back home cheering on them in front of televisions.
Against world No.19 Argentina, China fielded the same strong lineup which beat Italy, silver medallists at the 2018 World Championship including left-hander Li Yingying, the 201cm tall Yuan Xinyue, powerful hitter Zhang Changning and Gong Xiangyu and rested the injured star spiker Zhu Ting, Yan Ni and highly-experienced Ding Xia.
The first set turned out to be a one-way traffic with the less-ranked Argentines simply blown away by a fierce team’s barrage – with Li and Zhang too powerful from spike range. China clinched the comfortable set 25-15.
Argentina pulled their game together in the second set, but the Chinese continued to notch crucial points to lead with 6-point clear at 23-17. After that, the Argentines showed tremendous courage and defensive resilience to score 4 points in a row to reduce the gap 23-21. Gong fired an aggressive attack to widen it to 24-21, but her serve after that went wide, resulting in a narrow margin 24-22. China, however, never looked back after that, winning the last point to wrap up the hard-fought set 25-22 to hold 2-0 advantage.
Zhang’s superb scoring run continued in the third set when she, joined forces by Li, methodically tore the Argentinian defence into shreds with her exceptional attacks. China captured the set 25-19 and match.
Zhang Changning topscored with 18 points including 15 attacks and 2 blocks for China, while Li Yingying bagged 14 points and Gong Xiangyu and Yuan Xinyue added 11 points apiece. Erika Mercado led Argentina with 13 points.
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