Day 5 Wrap-Up
Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, April 29, 2023 – Sport Center 1, the only unbeaten team in the 2023 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship, and Diamond Food Fine Chef-Air Force topped their pools as the continent’s topflight club championship has reached a fever pitch, with the Top Four teams confirmed for the Monday’s action-packed semifinals to fight for their maiden tile.
At the end of the pool round-robin preliminaries on Saturday, Sport Center 1, fielding all Vietnam national team players in their final preparation for the next week’s 32nd Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia, and King Whale Taipei, winners at the Taiwan Enterprise League in current 2022/23 season, finished top two in Pool A.
Diamond Food, the former consecutive two-time Thailand League champions, and Liaoning Donghua VC, the team finishing 7th at the Chinese V. League in current 2022/23 season, captured the top two spots in Pool B.
The above quartet set up the Monday’s do-or-die semifinals, with Diamond Food challenging King Whale Taipei at 4.30pm local time and Liaoning Donghua going up against hosts Sport Center 1 at 7.30pm.
Among the semifinalists, only Diamond Food made the podium just once last year when the annual competition took place in Semey, Kazakhstan and the Thai outfits earned a well-deserved third place after powering past Iran’s Barij Essence 3-1 in the bronze-medal match.
Sport Center 1 also hope for their best result for their unprecedented title on home soil. Since the tournament inception in 1999, Vietnam made the semifinals just once, with Thong tin LienVietPostBank finishing in fourth place after straight-set loss to Kazakhstan’s Zhetyssu Almaty on home soil.
For Chinese Taipei, Chung Shan were within a whisker of winning gold medal at the 2005 and 2006 Asian Women’s Club Championship, only to return with silver medal in both occasions. 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, have their sights firmly set on handing Chinese Taipei’s the historic title.
Liaoning Donghua have never participated in the Asian Women’s Club Championship, but hope high to make their mark this time. China made it to the semifinals almost in every edition. Only in 2007 in Vinh Phuc here when Dalian Huanyu finished a distant 6th position out of 8 teams participating in the championship. China did not send any team to the 2021 edition in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand due to the COVID-19 pandemic and they still could not participate in Semey, Kazakhstan last year due to the tightened epidemic preventive measures in several Chinese cities.
On Saturday, Diamond Food bounced back from the first set loss 23-25 to Liaoning Donghua to stun the Chinese outfits in the remaining three sets 29-27, 25-22, 25-17 in their last Pool B match. Following the victory, Diamond Food bagged 10 points from 3 wins against one loss to move atop Pool B, while Liaoning Donghua dropped to the second place with 9 points from the similar performance with 3 wins against one loss.
The other Pool B clash saw the 2021 Asian Club champions Altay VC from Kazakhstan crush Hip Hing VC from Hong Kong, China in comfortable straight sets 25-14, 25-8, 25-12 to come in third place in the pool with 9 points from 3 wins against one loss. Hip Hing VC finished on the bottom 5th place in Pool B with no point awarded from 4 straight losses. Mongolia’s Khuvsgul Erchim, which ended their first-round campaign earlier, came in 4th place with 3 points from one win against 3 losses.
With only top two teams through to the semifinals, Altay, Khuvsgul Erchim and Hip Hing had been relegated to classification round for 5th-9th places in the championship.
In the same day, the 2002 and 2014 Asian Club winners Hisamitsu Springs from Japan regained their top form to beat Paykan, champions at the Iran Women’s Premier League in current 2022/23 season, in convincing three-setter 25-20, 25-15, 25-17.
The last encounter on Saturday saw Sport Center 1 entertain cheering home crowds packing the 3,000-seater competition venue with their exceptional performance to stun King Whale Taipei in dramatic four sets 25-12, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23 to continue their unbeaten streak in the championship.
Undefeated Sport Center 1 stayed atop the four-team Pool A with 8 points from 3 straight wins, followed by King Whale Taipei with 5 points from two wins against one loss. Hisamitsu Springs came in 3rd place in Pool A with 4 points from one win against two losses, with Paykan in fourth position with one point awarded from three straight losses.
Sport Center 1 and King Whale Taipei in Pool A qualified for the semifinals, while Hisamitsu Springs and Paykan had been relegated to classification round for 5th-9th places in the championship.
Only two matches in the 5th-9th ranking round will be contested on Sunday, April 30. Hisamitsu Springs will take on Hip Hing VC in the first match at 4.30pm local time, with Paykan facing Khuvsgul Erchim at 7.30pm.
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