Thai girls face China in knock-out phase
Hosts Thailand reached their initial target of a second-round berth in the Girls' Under-18 World Volleyball Championship with a comfortable straight-sets victory over Tunisia on Tuesday.
The 25-22 25-20 25-12 victory improved Thailand’s win-loss record to 3-1 and catapulted them into second place in Pool A with nine points. Today they go up against world No 1 China in a their first knock-out match.
Thai head coach Apichat Kongsawat said his team recovered from a nervy start to the match. “In the first set, we had some problems with the Tunisian attacks but came back much better as the game wore on.
“I’m very happy for the team. They made us proud by reaching the second round. The match against China, no doubt, will be tough. We will improve our tactics and come up with something to beat the Chinese.”
Team captain Patcharaporn Sittisad added, “We played according to the coach’s instructions. I think we still have some areas to improve, especially serves.
The first-ball reception still needs to be tweaked a bit.”
In other matches, Dominican Republic brushed off Slovenia 3-1 (22-25 25-20 25-19 25-23); USA tamed Algeria 3-0 (25-12 25-18 25-7); Serbia downed Puerto Rico 3-0 (25-13 25-16 25-23); Italy crushed Taiwan 3-0 (25-14 25-10 25-11); Mexico stunned title-holders Turkey 3-0 (25-20 25-22 25-21); Japan stormed back to beat Greece 3-1 (22-25 25-15 25-16 25-21) and China outclassed Argentina 3-0 (25-21 25-13 25-18).
At the end of the group round-robin preliminaries on Tuesday, unbeaten Serbia topped Pool A after bagging 12 points from four wins without losing a set, followed by Thailand (9), Puerto Rico (6), Egypt (3) and winless Tunisia. Asian champions Japan emerged as Pool B winners with eight points from three wins against one loss. Next came Poland (7), China (7), Greece (4) and Argentina (4).
In Pool C, USA were Pool winners with nine points from three wins against one loss, followed by Brazil (9), Slovenia (6), Dominican Republic (6) and winless Algeria.
Title-holders Turkey took the Pool D honours with nine points from three wins against one loss, followed by Peru (7), Italy (7), Taiwan (4) and Mexico (3).
The top four in each Pool go into the 16-team knock-out play-offs.
Today’s play-offs see Brazil go up against Italy, Thailand play China, Japan take on Egypt, Poland face Puerto Rico, Serbia challenge Greece, USA play Taiwan, Turkey meet Dominican Republic and Peru face Slovenia.
RELATED
