Slovenia, September 11, 2017 – Captain Misaki Yamauchi recorded 13 points to lead Japan in their dominating 4-0 (15-12, 15-12, 15-7, 15-13) win over Cuba in the 2017 FIVB Women’s U23 World Championship in Pool B at Sportna Dvorana Tivoli Hall on Monday.
Yamauchi made ten fruitful attacks and three blocks to lead Japan to their first victory here in Ljubljana, Slovenia, after their unexpected lost against Bulgaria on the opening day. Best scorer for the Cuban side was Heidy Casanova with twelve kills. Japan dominated with 37 to 21 successful spikes.
All matches in Ljubljana are played under a new scoring system currently being tested: a best-of-seven, 15-point set format.
Misaki Yamauchi and Miwako Osanai headed the offensive charge against Cuba to give Japan a 15-12 opening set win. The plot of the match did not change in the following sets, as the young Cubans could not take advantage of their height and power whereas Japan utilised their quickness to pull through.
Japan coach Kiyoshi Abo: “Today my team played much better then yesterday. Our attacking improved. I am convinced that we will continue to play like this also in the next matches. We have to focus on our game and play with confidence.”
Japan captain Misaki Yamauchi: “We are very happy to win the first match here in Ljubljana. Despite the 4-0 victory, the match was not easy for us. We prepared well for today’s match. All my teammates played very well.”
Cuba coach Wilfredo Robinson: “Our performance today was better than against Turkey on Sunday. We improved but made too many mistakes in the end of the sets although we were good in blocking.”
Cuba captain Diaris De La Caridad Perez: “We hope that we would perform better in this match but in the final moments of the sets we committed too many errors and eventually lost the match.”
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