Kazakhstan-Korea
As the match kicked off at the Baluan Sholak Sport and Culture Palace, Kazakhstan quickly noticed their opponents’ weak side and used it to their advantage. On defence, the Kazakh block easily read any Korean attack.
Kazakhstan’s misfortunes were prevalent in the second set as Olga Nassedkina’s head was struck by the ball which momentarily ceased play.
Korea radically changed their game and utilized this as the driving force to take the second set. Kazakhstan gave up early in the set, which evened the competition and gave each team with a one-set win.
Kazakhstan rallied back to the match during the pressure-filled third set. Alena Omelchenko scored 15 points – of which a whopping 8 points came from blocks. Although close action between the two teams was predominant in the set, Kazakhstan had to overcome a series of intense plays and defensive struggles to finally get to the final point of the set.
Korean captain Han Song-Yi desperately thrived to win back the fourth set. Han’s 24-point production came from every scoring skill aspect – service, blocking, spiking – just to lift her team to force a tiebreaker but eventually failed as Kazakhstan stood ground to protect their lead.
