Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, July 24, 2016 – Reigning champions China and gritty Korea remain in awesome form to make it two in a row at the SMM 18th Asian Women’s U19 Volleyball Championship at The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall on Sunday, as Hong Kong demolished New Zealand to claim their first win.

Hong Kong prove a cut above New Zealand

Hong Kong handed New Zealand the second loss on Sunday as they brushed off the inexperienced rivals in a comprehensive 3-0 (25-13,25-9, 25-23) win.

Hong Kong took an early lead 8-5 in the first technical timeout and extended the margin to 16-7 in the second one to finally close the set 25-13. New Zealand tried hard to catch up with Hong Kong in the second set, but captain Tam Hin Ching Rachel pumped up her fist to help Hong Kong snatch the lop-sided set win 25-9. New Zealand’s chances in the third set ran into trouble as they trailed 2-8 in the first technical timeout but could find a way out of the situation as they reduced the gap 15-17. New Zealand called two consecutive time-outs to make up the difference as they trailed 15-18 and 15-20-. The shots were amazing as drew a big round of applauses but it was Hong Kong that eventually closed the set 25-23 and Tam scored best in the court with 17 points. 

Aria Koria, New Zealand Captain: “In the end, we worked hard more. Hong Kong did really well. The opposites really helped them.”

Colleen Mcilory, New Zealand head coach: “I think Hong Kong had the desire to win. They were very consistent and did not let us show up for the first two sets. The skill execution of Hong Kong was better than us especially in serves. Honk Kong team play very disciplined and congratulation to the coach. (Regarding Time-out and substations in the third set) In the third set, I tried to slow down the game because Hong Kong worked so hard and they did not let us finish our step. The individual skills of my players are not good enough. When the pressures came out, we could not compete.”

Tam Hin Ching, Hong Kong Captain: “We performed pretty well despite that we lost the game yesterday. We came back quickly and we enjoyed this match very much. Although the blocking of New Zealand was very good, we did good job in serving, reception and covering.” 

Fai Cheung King, Hong Kong Coach: “We lost our last match and we were a bit disappointed. Today we really wanted to win the match so we prepared everything. Our serve and reception became better than yesterday. Our spikers performed really well. We were quick and you see that New Zealand had problem to catch up with our speed. In the third set, I let the bench players come in trying to gain experience to prepare for coming matches. Unfortunately, we are in the same group with China which is a bit difficult. We try our best to use any opportunity to join the top eight.”

China set the venue alight with scintillating straight-set win over Kazakhstan 

Title-holders China dashed Kazakhs’ hopes of maintaining their good show by pulling off a convincing 3-0 win  (25-18, 25-12, 25-16) over the rivals.

The two winners of opening match stepped into court with a passion to take the match.  China made an initial 8-5 lead in the first technical timeout but the rally equalled 11-11 and the number was barely changed on the scoreboard. China eventually got the helm of the match 19-15 and coach Yelena of Kazakhstan called a time-out but three more points could be of no help as China prevailed 25-18. The one-sided match in the second set had nothing to Kazakhstan as China wrapped up the set 25-12. The Kazakhs came back to match and edge 13-14 in the middle of the third set. However, China recovered from their unforced mistakes and best scorer Qian Jingwen who carved out 11-point haul steered the team to the set victory 25-16. 

Jing Jiang, China Captain: “The quality of us in this match was not so good. We will try to improve in the next match. We need to get better in our serves. We will surely top Pool B. (best player of opponent) Kristina of Kazakhstan played so good.”

Korea stretch unbeaten run to two following straight-set win over Chinese Taipei

Korea in an exciting rally routed the spirited Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-22). 

The match opened with Korea taking an early 8-6 lead. Chinese Taipei coach Jen Lo Chung called a timeout to stop the flow of the game, and finally they levelled in 11-11 that held no more as Korea got 16-12 up in the second technical timeout. Both sides were giving away points on unforced errors as the aggressive spikes of Ji Minkyeong widened the gap for Korea to 22-18 before an exciting finish at 25-20.

The second set was a copy of the first one, with Chinese Taipei showing improvement in attack and reception while losing with the similar margin 20-25. The match reached its peak as the rally went point by point showcase in the third set. Chinese Taipei led 13-10 while Korea soon made a successful comeback with a  19-19 tie. Coach Park Giju of Korea stood by the court and shouted out loud motivating the players to close an incredible victory 25-22. 

Jen Lo Chung, head coach of Chinese Taipei attributed the loss to the recovery of the players and said: “My players could not rest well which resulted in difficulty to recover from exhaustion caused in the previous match. We could have won the match. I hope we can improve tomorrow”. 

Sunday’s results

At The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall

Pool B

Hong Kong b New Zealand 3-0 (25-13, 25-9, 25-23).

China b Kazakhstan 3-0 (25-18, 25-12, 25-16)

Pool D

Korea b Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-20, 25-20, 25-22). 

Match schedule

At The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall

Group round-robin preliminaries

Monday, July 25, 2016

2pm: Hong Kong v. China

4pm: Kazakhstan v New Zealand  

6pm: Thailand v Sri Lanka