Manila, Philippines, August 13, 2017 – Towering spikers Rebecca Reeve and Sophie Godfrey won’t be denied at the top of the net anymore as Australia whipped Maldives in straight sets, 25-9, 25-5, 25-19 in their Pool H match-up at the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship here.
Pitted against a relatively lighter opponents compared to their Pool B assignments Japan and China, the Aussies used their height in cruising to a comfortable lead right from the get go which was too much for the Maldives to overcome.
Reeve fueled the attack for Australia as she dropped 9 kills of her 12 points while Godfrey anchored the defense with 5 blocks to add in her 11 markers.
The Maldivians, though, didn’t fold without a fight, taking advantage of the Aussie’s overconfidence in the third set, where they creeped in within two, 21-19, before self-destructing with untimely service errors.
“I thought in the first two sets, we played very clean and very controlled and the scores showed that,” said Australia head coach Shannon Winzer. “We made changes in the third set and I thought we lost a little bit of focus.”
Australia will next face Iran, a team they had a tune-up game with before the tournament kicked off, in a battle for the top spot for Pool H.
“We have played them once already, we know they are a good serving team and passing is a little bit of struggle so we will spend a lot of time tonight working on our reception,” noted Winzer.
Maldives, meanwhile, are now assured to play for the 13th-14th classification game against the last place team of Pool G.
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