By Maryam Hessaby
Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, October 6, 2021 – In-form Altay smashed Saipa’s sweet dreams of advancing to the final for the first time in history after edging past the Iran’s Super League champions in hard-fought four-set thriller 25-20, 21-25, 25-15, 25-22 to secure a final berth in the Thursday’s showdown against the winners between Nakhon Ratchasima QminC VC and Supreme Chonburi in the 2021 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship at Terminal 21 Hall on Wednesday.
Sana Anarkulova chipped in with 25 points for Altay including 22 attacks and 3 aces. Mahsa Saberi led Saipa with 13 points.
Saipa, spearheaded by powerful Pouran Zare, made a solid start in the first set, but Altay caught fire shortly after that. With Sana Anarkulova and Nadiia Kodola attacking spectacularly at the wing, the dominant Kazakh side clinched the thrilling set 25-20.
Despite 0-1 deficit, Saipa came back much stronger at the beginning of the second set. Mona Ashofteh and Mahsa Kadkhoda were devastating form as they joined forces in penetrating the Kazakh defence with their powerful attacks to help Saipa take a narrow 14-12 lead before widening the gap to 20-17 to clinch the hard-fought set 25-21 for a 1-1 tie.
With the Iranians riddled with several unforced attacking mistakes in the third set, Altay grabbed the chance to counter-attack and block effectively to advance to 16-10 and went on to win the comfortable set 25-15 to stretch the lead to 2-1.
Both teams shone through their exceptional form in the fourth set. Though putting up an aggressive fightback, Altay found the rivals uncatchable from the very beginning, but the substitutions turned the tide for Altay as they remained in fine form to win the closely-contested set 25-22, match and a final berth.
Kristina Anikonova of Altay said after the match, “We won this match but I am not happy with our performance. We did not follow what our coaches have instructed us because the Iranian team played very well today. We now have only one step to reach the top of the victory podium.”
“We will have to analyse our rivals in the final match to make sure the gold medal can be within our reach. We will do our best in the tomorrow’s showdown,” teammate Kristinia Belova added.
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