Hanoi, Vietnam, July 20, 2019 – In-form Kazakhstan proved too much for New Zealand to brush off the unfancied rivals in comfortable straight sets 25-12 25-17 25-17 in their classification for the 5th-8th place at the 3rd Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship at Gia Lam Gymnasium here on Saturday.
Kristina Belova became the only player who scored with double digits after collecting 12 points for Kazakhstan including 9 attacks from 20 attempts, while Petra Manderson led New Zealand with 7 points.
The three musketeers – left-hander Zhanna Syroyeshkina, Kristina Belova and Ekaterina Mikhailova, joined forces in the first set with their blistering spikes and scintillating blocking to help Kazakhstan win the first set easily 25-12. New Zealand gave it their all out in this set but were outclassed by the Kazakhs, who dashed out the rivals’ high hopes to recover from their dismal start which they were trailing 12-24.
In the second set, Belova got Kazakhstan off to a convincing start as she produced hard attacks to help the team jump to an initial 14-8 lead and started to take control when the Kiwis were error-strewn with their serving and attacking, Belova and Syroyeshkina punctured the rivals defence with their exceptional attacks to help Kazakstan claim the set 25-17.
The third set was similar script as the second when Syroyeshkina landed a couple of huge spikes for Kazakhstan to establish a comfortable 23-14 lead. New Zealand did not want to give up easily as they tried to counter-attack, but the confident Kazakhs performed well to push them to the limit. Leading 24-16 for good, Kazakhstan allowed the rivals only one more point to win the set 25-17 and match.
With the win, Kazakhstan will battle it out with Chinese Taipei for the 5th position on Sunday, while New Zealand play Hong Kong China in the 7th-8th playoff.
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