Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, August 30, 2023 – Reigning champions Japan, China and hosts Thailand pulled off convincing straight-set wins against their respective opponents, as Korea’s shock 2-3 defeat at the hands of Vietnam highlighted Day 1 of the 22nd Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship here on Wednesday.
The 22nd edition of the continent’s biggest women’s volleyball competition simultaneously kicked off on Wednesday at Chartchai Hall and MCC Hall inside The Mall Korat Department Store. A strong field of 14 teams are strutting their stuff in this topflight championship to vie for top honor and accumulated points for FIVB World Ranking, with Japan back to defend their title and seek their treble quest.
At the 5,000-seater Chartchai Hall, the main competition venue for this eight-day championship, Japan, fielding Miyu Nakagawa and Miwako Osanai, the two players who joined the team which captured the Asian title at the previous title in 2019 in Korea (the 2021 edition in Philippines was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic), made a solid start after 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-22) win against Iran in Pool B.
Okumu Oba Fuyumi Hawi delivered 14 points from 12 attacks and two blocks for Japan, while Yuki Nishikawa added another 13 points for the winning side. Khalili Chermahini Fatemeh led Iran with 12 points including 10 attacks from 31 attempts.
“Iran is a good team with high potential players. We find it very hard to play them because we have to adjust our game quite often. We have never thought about their height and so, their blocking was great. We next play India. The Indians also have good defence like Japan. In our team, there are 2-3 players who competed in this year’s VNL,” Japan head coach Takayuki Kaneko commented after the match.
Iran head coach Rashidi Kiklahijani Fatemeh said, “My players are very young and most of them have no enough experience to fight the strong Japanese. However, today is over and we have to get ready for tomorrow’s game against the Indians. In my point of view, India changed many players from the team we had played in the AVC Challenge Cup. However, I think we should win.
“In fact, we did not have enough time to prepare our team for this championship. Today, we did not have our first setter because of her injury two days ago during the friendly match against Thailand, while our second setter is still young. I think our blocking, service and digging worked out well today. I hope we can win some other games here,” she added.
The second match saw AVC Challenge Cup winners Vietnam bounce back from going down in the first two sets to stun world No. 35 Korea in hard-fought five-set thriller 22-25, 19-25, 25-23, 25-17, 15-13 in Pool C.
Star spiker Tran Thi Thanh Thuy scored a match-high 25 points from 20 attacks and 5 blocks for Vietnam, while opposite hitter Kang Sohwi contributed 20 points including 17 attacks from 49 attempts for Korea.
In Pool A, Thailand, successive two-time silver medallists, delighted home crowd at the Chartchai Hall with their sensational 3-0 (25-14, 25-16, 25-22) win against Australia.
Sasipapron Janthawisut and Chatchu-On Moksri scored 9 points apiece for Thailand, while Rebecca Redgen led Australia with 10 points including 8 attacks.
“We played according to the system we had planned initially. However, despite the win, we still had some weak points and mistakes we had made today to improve for our next games. We hope to play better and better in this championship,” said Ajcharaporn Kongyot, who also joined the Thai team winning the Asian title in 2013 here.
Meanwhile, at the MCC Hall, China, which had won the Asian crown for 13 times to their name, breezed past Hong Kong China in a lopsided battle 25-12, 25-15, 25-6 in Pool D.
Opposite hitter Wu Mengjie chipped in with 15 points from 10 attacks, 3 blocks and 2 aces for China, while middle blocker Yang Hanyu and opposite hitter Zhou Yetong kept good company to add 14 and 10 points respectively. China limited the rivals’ offense to the point that no rivals’ player got to reach double digits in scoring against them. Opposite hitter Yeung Sau Mei led Hong Kong, China with 7 points including 6 attacks from 15 attempts.
The other Pool D encounter saw Kazakhstan survive a scare from Philippines to narrowly edge past the spirited rivals in exhausting five sets 25-21, 17-25, 24-26, 27-25, 15-6 which lasted 139 minutes.
Opposite hitter Tatyana Nikitina delivered 27 points including 23 attacks and 3 aces for Kazakhstan, while opposite hitter Alinsug Evangeline was the most productive player for Philippines to score massive 30 points on the loss.
In Pool C, Chinese Taipei faced no issue in shutting out Uzbekistan in comfortable straight sets 25-11, 25-10, 25-18.
Opposite hitter Chen Tzu-Ya chipped in with 12 points for Chinese Taipei, while Ezozakhon Sativoldieva led Uzbekistan with 8 points, all in attack.
On Thursday, Mongolia will play their first match in this championship against Australia, Philippines go up against China and Korea take on Chinese Taipei at Chartchai Hall, while encounters at MCC Hall see Kazakhstan face Hong Kong China, India play their first match against Iran and Uzbekistan challenge Vietnam.
POOL RANKING
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