Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, May 19, 2017 – Formidable Japan became the first team to secure a semi-final berth at the SMM 2nd Asian Women’s U23 Volleyball Championship at The Mall Nakhon Ratchasima’s MCC Hall following a straight-set 25-14, 25-14, 25-11 win over Hong Kong on Friday.
Hong Kong tried hard to challenge Japan in the first two sets but their efforts were not successful as they could not cope with the Japanese tactics and went down to the much stronger opponents 14-25, 14-25. Japan remained in exceptional form in the third set to come up with solid defense and aggressive attacks to seal the one-sided set 25-11 and match.
Nanaka Sakamoto was the top scorer for Japan with 17 points from her 15 spikes and 2 blocks, while Misaki Yamauchi,who was substituted to play in the third set, added 11 points from 8 kills and 3 ace serves. Chim Wing Lam led Hong Kong with 8 points.
Despite the win, Japan’s head coach Kiyoshi Abo still expressed his dissatisfaction over the team’s performance. “I’m not satisfied with my team’s performance today. They made a lot of easy mistakes. We still don’t know which team we will face between Chinese Taipei or Iran in the semi-finals, but I expect a tough match for tomorrow’s game against both teams. We have to try our best to get through to the finals.”
Related links of AVC
AVC Website: click www.asianvolleyball.net
AVC Facebook: click www.Facebook.com/
AVC Twitter: click: https://twitter.com/avcvolley
AVC Instagram: click: https://www.instagram.com/
AVC Youtube: click: Asian Volleyball Confederation