Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, July 11, 2022 – Thailand took the bronze medal at the 21st Asian Women’s U20 Volleyball Championship after enduring a five-set thriller 3-2 (25-23, 12-25, 26-24, 20-25, 16-14) against Korea at the NU Sports Centre on Monday.
Ampha Sonsurat delivered 24 points as the bronze medallists’ top scorer.
Kim Bobeen tallied 26 points as Korea’s top scorer in the defeat.
Thailand went off to a good start, as they enforced much power from the service line. They placed their opponents at odds in the passing lanes. On attack, they were able to set up Ampha and Achirayaphorn Kumjaiboon at the flanks.
Korea soon improved their performance and dominated in the second set. Kim Bobeen and Kim Sein provided scoring power, as the team’s power serves likewise came into play. They played catch-up with their opponents in the third set, but fell to costly errors in the closing plays.
Kim Bobeen and Kim Sein were out to restart in the fourth set, continuing to unleash and score.
Thailand went on a search to overtake, as Ampha proved unstoppable from the left side. Not even the opponents’ frontline could close out on the block on her. She carried her swings with much speed and power that found their way into unmanned spots on the other side of the court. They were unable to sustain the momentum, as the match went into the tie-break.
The decider went into a side-out race, with each team taking turns to score.
Thailand went on to take a narrow, yet important lead, with their block-defence. They went on with good coverage to set up their counter-attack.
Korea worked their way slowly to take match point, but Thailand quickly regained momentum toward a place at the podium.
Thailand captain Donphon Sinpho contributed 20 points to help her team avenge the previous tie-break loss against Korea in the preliminary round.
“In our previous match with Korea, we could not overcome our fears. After having our team discussion, we played in today’s match like we had nothing to lose. We just played with our hearts out and got this good result.
“We learned a lot with our experience here in this championship, with our coach, with our libero suffering an injury, with the COVID-19 situation. We learned how to communicate with one another, and we simply learned together, as a team who has much love and care for one another,” said Donphon.
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