Title-holders BG taste first win at Asian Women’s Club Championship
Star-studded Bangkok Glass from Thailand got their title defence campaign at the “SMM” 2016 Asian Women’s Club Volleyball Championship off to a flying start following a comfortable 3-1 victory over North Korea’s 4.25 Sports Club at the Alone Sports Arena
Bangkok Glass, which fielded a strong line-up with the likes of superstar spiker Pleumjit Thinkaow, Wilavan Apinyapong and setter Pornpun Guedpard, three of them have been competing in the Thailand senior national team, and were strengthened by American import Ashley Frazier and Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hoa, wrapped up the first two sets without much difficulty 25-13 25-10.
However, Bangkok Glass, known as the Rabbit Women, struggled in the third set when the Koreans upped their tempo and hit back with solid blocks and sharp court-court attacks to take the thrilling set 25-21. Mighty Bangkok Glass put their acts together to capture the fourth set 25-16 and match. The Thai club on Monday will go up against Sarmayeh Bank from Iran.
Foreign reinforcement Ashley Frazier finished with 19 points for Bangkok Glass, while skipper Pleumjit Thinkaow and Jutarat Montripila had 16 markers apiece.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hoa and Wilavan Apinyapong added nine points each for Bangkok Glass, which eliminated 4.25 Sports Club out of the quarter-finals race. The Koreans on the previous day went down to Sarmayeh Bank 1-3 in the Pool B round-robin preliminaries and will now play in the classification match for 9th-12th place.
Meanwhile, NEC Red Rockets of Japan dominated Jakarta Elektrik of Indonesia 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-17). Talented Sarina Koga, who joined the Japan senior national team at the 2016 FIVB World Grand Prix, nailed 12 kills for a total of 14 points while Mizuki Yanagita added 12 hits and Kana Ono had 11 markers for the Japanese, which came up with a runner-up finish in the previous staging of the tournament when they were represented by Hisamitsu Springs in Vietnam last year.
Thongtin Lien Viet Post Bank of Vietnam fought hard against Foton Pilipinas to stun the host side in gruelling five sets 25-18 19-25 20-25 25-12 15-8 in Pool A.
China’s Ba’Yi Shenzheng also started as another strong team to be reckoned with at the top-flight tournament when they opened their campaign in Pool D with a quick 3-0 (25-12 25-11 25-19) win over T. Grand of Taiwan on Sunday.
