Jakarta, Indonesia, February 12, 2018 – Indonesia A and B teams delighted home audience with impressive wins on the second day of the 18th Asian Games Men’s Volleyball Invitation Tournament at the Tennis Indoor Senayan in Jakarta on Monday, with the former powering past Hong Kong in straight sets and the latter stunning Japan in fantastic comeback 3-2 win.
With the convincing victory on Monday, Indonesia A remained undefeated to maintain the top spot with six points from two wins without losing a set to their respective rivals. Spearheaded by Rivan Nurmulki, who took the Best Opposite Spiker award at the last year’s Asian meet, Indonesia A fielded a strong team including 10 players competing at the last year’s Asian Senior Men’s Volleyball Championship on home soil in Gresik, where they finished their best-ever fourth place at the biennial meet.
Against Hong Kong, which finished a disappointing 16th at the Asian meet, Indonesia A struggled to win the closely-contested opening set 26-24, but came back much stronger in the second set, where they won easily 25-14. They rested their promising players in Rivan Nurmulki and Antho Bertiawan in the third set and instead fielded substitutions. Indonesia A remained in superb form to win the set 25-20 and the match.
Doni Haryono led Indonesia A with 14 points from 11 attacks, 2 blocks and 1 serve. Agung Seganti and Rivan Nurmulki contributed 13 and 11 points respectively for the Indonesia’s scintillating 3-0 win over the unfancied rivals. Wu Lok Kan topscored Hong Kong with 8 points including 7 kills from 18 attempts.
On Tuesday, the final day of the round-robin preliminaries of the four-day meet, which serves as the Test Event Asian Games 2018, Indonesia A are due to battle it out with Japan to vie for the top spot.
Japan on Monday suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Indonesia B after going down to the well-organised home team 25-23 22-25 25-20 19-25 12-15 in gruelling 110 minutes.
Ramzil Huda and Sigit Ardian respectively collected 22 and 20 points to help Indonesia B beat Japan in five sets, while Jin Tsuzuki and Hiroki Ozawa led Japan with similar 19 points.
However, despite the loss, Japan are trailing in second place with 4 points from one win against one loss. The Japanese still keep their hopes of moving to the top of the standing alive. To achieve that goal, they need a must-win match (either 3-0 or 3-1) against Indonesia A on Tuesday.
The cross semi-finals will be held on Wednesday, with the team finishing first at the preliminary round taking on the team ranked fourth. The other semi-final encounter will see the team ranked second battle it out with the team finishing third, The two winning teams on Wednesday will set up a final showdown the following day, with the two losers fighting in the third-place playoff.
MONDAY’S RESULTS
Round-robin preliminaries:
Indonesia B b Japan 3-2 (23-25 25-22 20-25 25-19 15-12)
Indonesia A b Hong Kong 3-0 (26-24 25-14 25-20)
MATCH SCHEDULE
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
4pm: Hong Kong v Indonesia B
7pm: Japan v Indonesia A
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