Guangdong
Volero’s Kenia Carcaces was quickly into her spiking rhythm and contributed three points as the hosts took an 8-7 lead at the first technical timeout. Carcaces and teammate Mira Golubovic continued to try and smash their way through the Chinese defence, but Guangdong Evergrande always defend well and turned the tables with an ace from captain Ruoqi Hui at 16-14. Lang Ping’s squad kept a two-point lead until 23-21. However, momentum changed again with Golubovic serving an ace to offer Zurich a first set ball at 24-23. Yunli Xu saved one but could not prevent Carcaces from smashing the first set home for the hosts.
Good serves allowed the Chinese to take a slight lead before Natasa Osmokrovic delivered a clever shot to even the scores at 11-11. 19-year young Laura Unternaehrer served successive shots as Switzerland moved into a 15-11 lead, but Ting Zhu slugged Guangdong back into the match and it remained tight to 18-18 when China opened up a two-point gap. Zurich coach Jan de Brandt called a timeout but it did not help. A Carcaces fault gave the Asians a chance of taking the set and Zhu concluded by hammering the Mikasa down to make it 1-1.
Spikes from Carcaces and opposite Olesia Rykhliuk helped Volero Zurich move into a 11-8 lead in the third set but China were quickly back in the game. Setter Shen served two aces to lead Evergrande to a two-point lead at the second technical break. The Asian champions were successful at the net and that helped them into a five-point lead at 22-17. Volero showed glimpses of their attacking form but the gap was too big to close against the resilient Chinese. A Zhu missile finished things off.
Sunday’s bronze medal match featured a tough battle between the two key players: Ting Zhu (19 points in the first three sets) and Kenia Carcaces (21) led their teams with sparkling offensive game and exemplary fighting spirit. Volero experienced the better start into the fourth set but Guangdong bounced back after a four-point deficit and regained momentum at the second technical break (16-14). Zhu came up with another rocket and a service winner by Yunli Xu put China 23-20 ahead. Guangdong Evergrande got match point with another ace by Xu and Zhu, again, sent down the winning shot to earn the Asians the bronze medal.
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