Hosts Italy wrapped up their 2021 FIVB Women’s Volleyball Nations League obligations coming back from a set down to defeat Thailand in four – their fourth win at the tournament in Rimini on Sunday.
Thailand, consecutive two-time Asian silver medallists, tried hard to overcome a mighty scare from the young talents of the host side to go down in hard-fought four-set thriller 35-33, 21-25, 25-27, 20-25 in their last encounter of the single round-robin preliminaries of the 2021 VNL.
Thailand ended their VNL campaign with 6 points from two wins against 13 losses to finish on the bottom of the 16-team standings. However, if age and preparation are the two factors taken into consideration, winning two matches in the world-class competition like VNL was not that bad and should be something Thailand can be proud of.
More than half of the players in the Thailand team are veterans with age exceeding 34 and they were not the selected players for the 2021 VNL from the beginning. However, as the first selected team could not travel due to some heath reasons, the team of these veterans came in place and they had trained only a few days before their departure for the top-flight competition.
Thailand poured everything they had to win this last match in Italy, but eventually had their high hopes dashed by a 1-3 defeat.
Onuma Sittirak chipped in with 24 points for Thailand, while Pleumjit Thinkaow added 16, Sutadta Chuewulim 12 and Malika Kanthong 9. Young Oghosasere Loveth Omoruyi, 18, scored a match-high 33 points on Italy’s winning efforts.
Wilavan Apinyapong of Thailand said at the virtual Mixed Zone: “I would like to thank all my friends here, our Fab 6. I know that it was not planned that we will be here, we were not ready. I planned to have a baby before I came here, but to play here with such amazing friends and teammates is a beautiful story we had at the VNL 2021.
“Even though the result is not what we had planned, with all the support and encouragement we received we were able to play again like we wanted to. We got two wins in a row and we still have smiles on our faces. And for the next generation, we would like to tell the team: we love you, we are here to support you and play as we played with smiles and joy,” she added.
Italy’s Marina Lubian said: “This match was really stressful, I think, because Thailand defended everything and we tried to do the same. It was also difficult to block them at the beginning, but I think that we worked well at the end. I’m happy about this tournament and about this experience, because it was important for us.”
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