China-Mongolia
The FIVB world No.1 used their height advantage to attack aggressively at the net, with the 193cm-tall Xu Ruayo tearing the Mongolian defence apart with her exceptional spikes.
Mongolia played to their level, but proved no match for the much stronger Chinese, who came out with fantastic offensive combinations led by Xu’s powerful jump serves and spectacular spikes.
After conceding the first two sets 9-25 and 10-25, the Mongolians found China impossible to crack and fell 7-25 in the third set. Tang Ningya bagged 16 points for China, while Ganbold Enkhnaran top-scored for Mongolia with six points, all of them from devastating attacks.
“I’m happy that my team won the first match here. We played at our training level. In preparation for our title defence here, we have trained intensively for three months,” said China coach Xu Jiande. “My team also had a chance to sharpen our skills against European counterparts. We travelled to Belgium, Italy and Germany for warm-up matches against their national junior teams. I’d set two targets in this tournament – securing a final berth and beating our rivals in the final clash.”
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