Thailand suffer defeat to Italy in second Olympic qualifying match
TOKYO: The mighty Italians exposed Thailand’s weaknesses in a 3-1 triumph yesterday, sending out a clear signal that they are determined to claim one of the four Olympic tickets on offer at the women’s volleyball qualifiers.
The Thais, who had upset the Dominican Republic 3-1 in their first game on Saturday, did dominate their rivals for a brief period and took the first set, but then their spikers were taught a lesson in all-round volleyball by the Italians.
Thai coach Kiattipong Radchatagrienkai did not bother to offer any excuses after the 17-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-16 defeat.
“We are happy to play against one of the best teams in the world,” he said. “We learned a lot during the match and now we need to work together to solve our problems.”
Italy, who won their second straight match yesterday, were emphatic after being completely outplayed in the opening set by a Thai team desperate to get to their first Olympics.
Setter Nootsara Tomkom, with lightning decision making, wrong-footed the Italians time and again in the opening set and Thailand raced to an 8-1 lead with Ajcharaporn Kongyot running riot up front.
With the Thais leading 16-7, Italian coach Marco Bonitta made some changes, benching the experienced pair of Serena Otolani and Francesca Piccinini, but nothing could stop their rivals from taking the first set 25-17.
The script, however, changed altogether in the second set.
Nootsara and Ajcharaporn could only steer Thailand to an 11-11 tie but then the tall Italians unleashed some sizzling spikes to claim the set 25-16 and level the score 1-1.
The loss deflated the Thais’ enthusiasm and although captain Pleumjit Thinkaow valiantly tried to rally her team, the Italians had already moved into a higher gear and eventually took the third set 25-17.
The Italians were clinical in the fourth set. They blasted the Thais into submission with some mighty shots and proved impenetrable when the Asian side tried to pierce through their defence. Italy took the final set 25-16.
Bonitta praised the Thais, saying: “They played very good volleyball in the first and fourth sets today. They played at a high level. We were able to address our problems in the second set.”
Meanwhile in other matches yesterday, South Korea shocked the Netherlands 3-0 (29-27, 25-23, 25-21), Peru beat the Dominican Republic 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 26-24) and hosts Japan defeated Kazakhstan 3-0 (2514, 25-15, 25-11).