Manila, Philippines, August 16, 2017 – What was expected to be a match that will go down the wire turned out to be a walk in the park for Chinese Taipei after they blasted Philippines 25-19, 25-20, 25-19 Wednesday at the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship classification round.
Though the hundreds of fans who trooped to the Alonte Sports Arena were rooting for the opponents, Chinese Taipei managed to block out the noise and play steady from start to finish with Wei-hua Wu leading the pack with 14 points off 12 kills, 1 ace and 1 offensive block.
“We had pressure caused by the cheering Philippine crowds and their team have been progressing over the years. That’s why we had a few problems in playing the Philippines. However, our players just tried their best,” Chinese Taipei head coach Lin Min-Hui said in an interview.
I think we played well, but if we have to play a good match against Vietnam, we have to block Tran Thi Thanh Thuy. She is so powerful. Actually, we aimed for a place in the semi-finals, but when we missed it, we now have to focus on the fifth place instead.”
Philippines have two double-digit performances from Alyssa Valdez and Jaja Santiago who tallied 13 and 10 points, respectively, but shot themselves on the foot as a team after giving Chinese Taipei 24 easy points via unforced errors.
“We were up with a big lead in the third set at 10-4 but then Chinese Taipei recovered. It just shows that they’ve been playing at this level for a longer time compared to us,” Valdez said in an interview.
With the win, Chinese Taipei set up a showdown with Vietnam for fifth place happening Thursday at the same venue.
The hosts, on the other hand, was relegated to battle for seventh against Kazakhstan.
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