Seoul, Korea, August 20, 2019 – Kazakhstan recovered from the first-set loss to beat India in four-setter 21-25 25-16 25-19 25-18 in their last preliminary match of the 20th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.
With the dramatic 3-1 win, Kazakhstan finished second in Pool B with 6 points from two wins against one loss to join Pool B winners Japan in the round of Top 8.
The Tuesday’s game was intense from the very beginning keeping all the players on their toes with India taking a narrow 11-10 lead. With a strong teamwork, Kazakhstan caught up with India at 18-18, thanks to their height advantage for effective blocking. However, the Kazakh side were error-strewn shortly after that, allowing the Indians back-to-back attacks. India took the first set 25-21.
Going down one set, Kazakhstan regrouped and hit back gallantly in the second set, with Ekaterina Mikhailova and Zhanna Syroyeshkina on fire uncorking a series of fierce attacks to help the team clinch the set 25-16.
India fought back to set the third set extremely tight, leaving the audience in awe. Kazakhstan stayed in front with a two-point clear at 20-18 and stretched it to 23-18 after Kristina Anikonova let loose her attacks. Kazakhstan allowed India one more point to clinch the thrilling set 25-19.
Holding a 2-1 advantage, Kazakhstan started the fourth set confidently. Levelling at 12-12, Kazakhstan remained unstoppable with great flexibility and agility, gaining points after points to eventually capture the set 25-18 and match.
After the match, Kazakhstan head coach Sancak Nejat said, “It was a crucial game after we lost to Japan earlier so it was a bit hard to recover from it. We expected this game to be as difficult as the game against Japan. I’m worried but the young players on the bench helped us a lot and thus, we were able to win. We were not going to change the starting lineup from our match against Japan, but later on we adapted to the Indian team and placed more of our defensive players from the bench which helped us get better. More importantly, Zhanna Syroyeshkina’s powerful jump serves were really the main reason behind our victory so I want to thank her for that.
“Wednesday is a rest day. I am going to let my players shop because we are leaving right away after the tournament ends and also because while other groups had three games each, we had four so I want them to have a bit of fun,” he added.
Setter Natalya Akinova, one of the Kazakhstan’s key players, said, “I am glad we won and although we didn’t do so well in the beginning, I had faith in my team because we have a good teamwork.”
Zhanna Syroyeshkina, an influential backbone of the team, said, “When I was serving I did it with confidence and I trusted myself which is, I think, what helped me perform well. The fact that we lost the first set made myself even more desperate and emotional which apparently got us more motivated and stronger.”
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