Tehran, Iran, September 19, 2019 – Indomitable Japan stormed into the semi-finals of the SMM 20th Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship following a hard-fought four-set 25-23, 25-17,18-25, 25-22 win in the Thursday’s quarter-final clash at the 12,000-seater Azadi Sports Complex.
China mounted a strong challenge in this crucial match against Japan. Still, their determined efforts were in vain as the Japanese side came up in full strength. The Chinese could not cope with the rivals’ power-and-speed tactics and went down in the first two sets to the well-established Japanese counterparts 25-23, 25-17.
The Japanese players lost their touch in the third set, leaving China to seize the opportunity to attack effectively and block solidly for the crucial 25-18 win. The fired-up Japanese remained irresistible in the fourth set as they performed superbly with impenetrable defence, solid blocks and powerful attacks to capture the set 25-22, match and a semi-final berth.
Yuki Ishikawa chipped in with 22 points for Japan including 19 attacks from 30 attempts, while Jiang Chuan led China with 17 attacks and 4 solid blocks.
The Japan’s top scorer has set his team’s high hopes on winning gold medal. “We won the game today and we are prepared to be the finalists. Probably, we should play against Australia, the only unbeaten team of the tournament. We will do our best to display our best performance”.
Yuki Ishikawa is taking his second experience in the Asian Senior Men’s Championship and is the Italian legionnaire of Japan in Serie A. At the previous Asian meet in Indonesia two years ago, Ishikawa landed the Best Outside Spiker and the MVP awards.
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