MANILA, Philippines, August 17, 2017 – Tran Thi Thanh Thuy delivered one final stellar performance in the SMM 19th Asian Senior Women’s Volleyball Championship as Vietnam scraped past Chinese Taipei 25-23, 25-22, 25-23 to settle for the 5th place in the 14-team field.
The 19-year old Vietnamese ace spiker relentlessly attacked the defense of relatively smaller Chinese Taipei side to finish with 18 points, all but one coming off kills, in the game held at Alonte Sports Arena in Binan.
Chinese Taipei actually had more block points (6-4) and aces (7-4) but just were not able to stop the Vietnamese firepower, led by Thuy, as they were buried in the attacking department (50-37).
Lee Tzu-Ying scored 9 points for Chinese Taipei, which settled for the 6th spot.
Though failing to advance to the podium round, Vietnam, mentored by Japanese coach Hidehiro Irisawa, still exited the tourney on a high note after collecting back-to-back wins from Kazakhstan and Chinese Taipei.
Vietnam now shift their focus to the South East Asian Games which will kick off in two days at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
“We glad to win again. Chinese Taipei are very strong and as I said before, to beat them is not that easy. My team used their hearts to fight all-out for the win,” Irisawa commented after the match.
Vietnam finished the similar 5th place as they did at the previous edition in Tianjin, China two years ago, but Chinese Taipei dropped from their fourth-place finish in Tianjin for the 6th position here in Manila.
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