Toray-Tianjin-reach-quarterfinals-unbeaten
The nine-day championship serves as qualification for the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championship set to be held in Doha, Qatar from October 13 to 19.
In-form Toray Arrows, champions in this year’s Japan’s V-Premier League, emerged as victors of Pool A as they completed their preliminary-round campaign with a clean sweep of wins on Tuesday, while powerhouse Tianjin Bridgestone, eight-time champions of the Chinese Volleyball League, also completed their campaign in the same fashion on Monday.
Three matches were contested on Wednesday, the final day of the pool round-robin preliminaries. Kazakhstan’s Zhetyssu defeated Sri Lanka’s S.L.B.F.E in a one-sided straight-sets (25-11, 25-13, 25-9) win in 52 minutes.
Iran’s Gitipasand produced a magnificent come-from-behind victory over VTV Binh Dien Long An by stunning the Vietnam side 3-0 (23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-19) while hosts Chang of Thailand had a comfortable encounter against Myanmar’s Asia World VC to seal a convincing win (25-7, 25-16, 25-14) victory.
“I fielded many new, young players in this match with aims of allowing them more competition experiences,” Chang coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai said. “Many players shone through with their impressive form, especially the two setters, Nootsara Tomkom and Pornpun Guedpard. However, we still have some mistakes which require immediate solutions.”
At the completion of the preliminaries, Toray top Pool A with 11 points from four wins while Chang collected 10 points from three wins against one loss, Gitipasand came third with six points from two wins against two losses and VTV Binh Dien Long An finished fourth with one win against three losses. Myanmar’s Asia World VC did not win a single set in the preliminaries to come in the fifth place of the pool.
In Pool B, indomitable giants Tianjin emerged as the pool winners with eight points from three wins as Kazakhstan’s Zhetyssu came in second with seven points from two wins, San Barbara Polo & Racquet of Malaysia finished third in the pool with one win and S.L.B.F.E are bottom of the pool, failing to win a single set in the preliminaries.
On Thursday S.L.B.F.E and Asia World VC will battle it out in a playoff to decide the final place in the next round. The winning team will join the other seven in Friday’s quarterfinals while the losers will finish ninth.
Friday’s quarterfinal match ups will see Zhetyssu will take on Gitipasand, Tianjin face Binh Dien, Chang pitted against San Barbara and Toray meet the winners between the playoff.
