China stay on course for fourth world title
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China's chances of capturing their fourth world title remains a possibility as the Asian powerhouses downed Dominican Republic in a thrilling tie-breaker to storm their way into the semi-finals of the Girls' Under-18 World Volleyball Championship on Frida
China, who finished second to hosts Turkey in the previous world meet two years ago, struggled to beat the Dominicans 22-25 20-25 25-11 25-22 15-6. The Chinese, powered by the 199cm-tall hard-attacking Yuan Xinyue, were due to take on South American dark horses Peru in the semi-finals.
Peru overpowered Serbia in an exhausting five-set thriller 16-25 25-22 25-19 21-25 15-8 in another quarter-finals. In the other semi-finals, former three-time champions Brazil were due to challenge the US. Brazil brushed off Asian champions Japan in straight sets 25-23 25-22 25-22. The US beat Poland 25-22 25-20 26-24.
In the 9th-16th classification round, Italy outclassed Egypt 3-0 (25-23 25-18 25-19, Taiwan edged Puerto Rico 3-2 (25-20 28-26 21-25 18-25 15-8), Greece outplayed Slovenia 3-1 (25-19 24-26 25-19 25-18), while hosts Thailand succumbed to a disappointing straight-set loss 25-21 21-15 21-10 to Turkey.
Against title-holders Turkey, Thailand failed to make an impact despite being cheered on lustily by drum-beating noisy home fans. Conceding the first set at 25-21, Thailand made plenty of unforced attacking and serving errors to go down in the next two sets. With the loss, Thailand were relegated to the 13th-16th play-off round while Turkey were promoted to the 9th-12th play-offs.
Thailand’s head coach Apichat Kongsawat said: “We tried to put up a good fight against Turkey. Their attacking was really great and we just could not block them. I think we did not start well and were trailing Turkey all the way. Our reception was not that good. I hope we can improve our tactics in the next match.”
Team captain Patcharaporn Sittisad added, “We could not withstand their exceptional attacks.”
Yesterday, Brazil were to take on the US and Peru were to challenge China in the semi-finals. In the 5th-8th play-offs, Japan were due to play Poland and Dominican Republic faced Serbia. Italy were scheduled to take on Taiwan and Turkey played Greece in the 9th-12th play-offs.
In the 13th-16th classification round, Egypt take on Puerto Rico; Thailand meet Slovenia. Algeria meet Tunisia and Argentina faced Mexico in the 17th-20th play-offs.
