‘HIGH-LEVEL PLAY’ ON HOME TURF
▶ Volleyball captain Yuan leads members to seal victory over Netherlands
China edged the Netherlands in a breathtaking five-set clash at the Women’s Volleyball World Championship in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on Thursday to claim their second win, remaining undefeated in the second phase of the group stage.
Trailing 14-10 in the deciding set, the Netherlands saved two match points before captain middle blocker Yuan Xinyue’s spike sealed the victory [22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 18-25, 15-12] for China in a rematch of the bronze medal game at the 2018 worlds.
“The Netherlands team played really well today, improving a lot, especially in reception, “said Cai Bin, head coach of the Chinese team.
“We had prepared for a tough fight like this and our players did a good job. In front of the home supporters, they played at a high level.”
The match, as expected, proved to be a toe-to-toe battle from the first set, with both teams exchanging the lead a couple of times until leveling at 22-22. Middle blocker Juliet Lohuis stood out for the hosts with perfect digging, followed by a powerful spike and a winning block.
The second set went on the same way as in the first, but it was China who played better after the 20-20 mark, firing a 5-1 run to pull one set back.
“Despite losing the first set, we didn’t lose our faith to win the match. We knew that playing against the host team was always not easy, especially if you are trailing behind. But we didn’t give up, we encouraged each other and tried to get the match back our way,” said China’s outside hitter Li Yingying, who scored a match-high 23 points.
China dominated the third set, during which the two-time world title winners surged to a 10-3 lead before winning the set 25-15. But the fourth set was totally reversed as the Netherlands came back strong with a 25-18 scoreline.
“We won the third set easily and had expected a tough fightback from our opponents in the fourth, we had expected that but we didn’t cope with it well,” 22-year-old Li said.
A restored China proved to be better in the deciding set, with Li, who had only had two points in the fourth set, regaining her sharpness in attacking and adding four points to her scoring sheet.
Fellow outside hitter Wang Yunlu also had a prolific night, with 14 points [all in kills], while middle blocker Yang Hanyu changed the course of the match after she came off the bench to tally another 13 points [12 kills, one block], one more than team captain Yuan, who scored the game-winning point and produced nine kills and three blocks.
The Netherlands had three players with similar production in team captain Anne Buijs, who had 18 points
[ 16 kills, two aces], outside hitter Nika
Daalderop, who left the court with 17 [16 kills, one block], and middle blocker Lohuis, who chipped in another 15 [11 kills, four blocks].
The 2016 Rio Olympic champions return to second place in the pool after the win, with a 6-1 win-loss record, behind top-ranked Italy and ahead of Brazil, who defeated Puerto Rico in straight sets earlier on Thursday.
However, the hosts stayed in sixth place after the defeat as their chance for a spot in the quarterfinals was weakened again.
The top four teams in the pool, which also features Japan, Belgium and Argentina, will advance to the last eight. China will face Italy on Saturday before taking on Belgium the following day. The Netherlands will play Brazil on Friday before completing their group matches against Japan on Sunday.