Ninh Binh, Vietnam, July 5, 2017 –Croatian opposite spiker Igor Omrcen scored 33 points to steer Japan’s Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza to the final after storming past Kazakhstan’s Altay VC with a sensational straight-set victory 25-16,25-22,25-22 in the semifinals of the SMM 2017 Asian Men’s Club Volleyball Championship at the Ninh Binh Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza kicked off the opening set with a brilliant performance on their defense to take an early 16-10 lead while Altay VC committed many errors on their serves. The Japanese capitalized on the opponents’ errors to claim the comfortable set 25-16.Three consecutive powerful jump serves from Igor made the Japanese team for a 4-1 lead in the second set.
The Japanese continued their good tactics with good teamwork to lead 24-22 before Kon Hirotaka ended the set with a fast attack down in the middle for a 2-0 lead. Back against the wall, the Kazakhs tried hard to challenge last year’s bronze medallists, hoping to bring back their good form. Their determined efforts paid off impressively as they had a narrow 7-5 lead for the first time.
However, aggressive serves and attacks from Igor remained a big problem to their reception.
Yamada Shuzo scored 3 points in a row from his exceptional serves to bring the Japanese back to lead 12-10.They took advantage of their lead, cruising to the match point 24-22. Igor closed out the set 25-22 and match with his thundering spike for a final berth.
“It was an amazing game and a wonderful performance from my team.We fought very hard to the final round.I think we prepared and executed our tactics very well today. It is very nice job for us,”said Igor Omrcen who has joined Toyoda Gosei Trefuerza for four years.
Toyota Gosei Refuerza will next take on the winners between last year’s champions Sarmayeh Bank of Iran and Al-Arabi Sports Club from Qatar.
“Both teams are very strong.But we have to recover and get some rest to prepare for our toughest match tomorrow.I don’t know which team we will face,but we will try our best to win the championship,”he added.
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