Debutantes Thailand advance to semi-finals
Thailand women’s national volleyball team produced a magnificent come-from-behind 3-2 (26-28 21-25 25-20 25-23 15-10) victory over the Netherlands, the team they lost in straight sets at the last month’s World Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan, to
Thailand, world No.13 and Asian bronze medallists, have already beaten World Cup silver medallists Serbia 3-2 in their opening encounter the previous day. With two consecutive wins, the in-form Thai team have already booked their semi-final berth despite the fact that they still have one more match against hosts Switzerland on Friday night (at 11.45pm Bkk time).
Following the win, Thailand went atop the Pool B standings with four points from two straight wins against no loss. Serbia came in second place with four points from one win against one loss. The Netherlands finished third place with four points from one win against one loss, with hosts Switzerland in fourth position with no point from two straight losses.
In Pool A, World Cup champions and world No.2 China captured the pole position with six points from two wins against one loss, followed by Turkey, Belgium and world U23 champions Brazil. After the conclusion of the pool preliminaries on Friday, only top two teams from each pool will advance to the cross semi-finals.