Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, April 26, 2023 – Devastating King Whale Taipei bounced back from the first-set loss to Hisamitsu Springs with a stunning 3-2 (16-25, 25-21, 25-22, 24-26, 15-8) upset of the former two-time champions in the Pool A clash at the 2023 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Opposite Flavio De Carvalho Beatriz from Brazil powered the Chinese Taipei side to the dramatic victory with amazing 32 points including 29 attacks and two aces, while outside hitters Lin Shu-Ho and Wu Fang-Yu added 18 and 11 points respectively. Outside hitter Megumi Fukazawa scored 20 points including 18 attacks on Hisamitsu Springs’ losing effort.
Hisamitsu Springs, champions at the Japan’s 2021/22 V. League Division 1 and the Empress’ Cup All Japan Championship, are competing in Vinh Phuc with only 11 players, while some key players are missing as they joined the Japan national team.
In the past, Chinese Taipei’s Chung Shan were within a whisker of winning gold medal at the 2005 and 2006 Asian Women’s Club Championship, only managed to return with silver medals. This time, King Whale Taipei, silver medallists at the 2022/23 PVL Invitational Conference in Philippines and gold medallists at the 2022/23 Taiwan Enterprise League, carried the Chinese Taipei’s hopes to make their mark in this topflight club championship.
Both sides traded points in the opening set until 5-5. Megumi and Sae Nakajima, who provided most of the ammunition in the Japanese attack in the set, capped their stellar show by each hitting deadly cross-court attacks to help Hisamitsu Spring break away 10-7 and extended the lead to 20-12. King Whale Taipei tried hard to come back, with the left-hander Carvalho Beatriz penetrating the Japanese defence with her spectacular attacks, but Hisamitsu Springs held firm and went on their brilliant form for the 25-16 win.
The second set then came into a see-saw affair as neither side was able to lead enough to establish a winning trend. Leveling at 18-18, King Whale Taipei put their acts together and stormed on to widen the gap to 23-20. Nakajima grabbed one crucial point for Hisamitsu Springs, but the rivals were delighted seeing a Manami Mandai’s serve go to the net. The Chinese Taipei team delivered the set point at 24-21 before Carvalho Beatriz hammered a hit which went unanswered. King Whale Taipei won the thrilling set 25-21.
The next two sets intensified as both sides tried to pull their games together. However, King Whale Taipei momentarily suffered a setback when middle blocker Oliverira Fabiano Gabriela from Brazil, one of the key players in the team, sustained a right ankle injury while they were trailing with two points behind at 7-9 in the third set. Still, the setback could not stop their will to win. King Whale Taipei regained their composure and counter-attacked aggressively to clinch the third set 25-22.
Still, their delight was short-lived as Fukazawa and Nakajima played important roles in the Hisamitsu Springs’s offensive system, taking turns puncturing the rivals’ defence with their attacks. A sharp spike from Fukazawa landed on the side line to deliver the set point at 24-22, but King Whale Taipei fought on to be swift in catching up at 24-24. Hisamitsu Springs won two points in a row for the hard-fought set win 26-24, forcing a do-or-die tiebreaker.
In the decider, King Whale Taipei fared much better. Leading with a 3-point clear at 11-8, the Taiwanese girls took total control on the scoreboard soon after that. Lin Shu-Ho was on fire to score two points in a row, while Carvalho Beatriz followed suit with two successive aces to end the Japanese challenge. King Whale Taipei captured the set 15-8 and the hotly-contested match.
Hisamitsu Springs head coach Shingo Sakai commented after the match, “King Whale Taipei played exceptionally well. Their strategies are so amazing and we found it very hard to handle. We came here with only 11 players because some key players in my team joined the Japan national team. So, we are not competing with a full team here. Most players in our team here are very young. We next take on Sport Center 1, one of the strong teams to be reckoned with in this tournament. However, we will do our best to defeat them.”
King Whale Taipei head coach Teng Yen-Min was delighted with the win, citing that the team’s hard work paid its dividends. “All the 14 players are very hard to participate in this game. They put a lot of efforts. We lost the first set with a big gap but we could make a comeback. I think it’s a little while since we have no international game with foreign players and foreign teams. So it takes a little time to come back with a lot of activities in mind. For this tournament, we have prepared a lot for Pool A and for each team we paid a lot of intention and concentrated. We have a little rest tomorrow and then after that, we concentrate again to focus with our next game.:
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