Asian Games volleyball recap: South Korea, India, Iran and China win placement matches
The men’s volleyball placement round began Friday at the Asian Games in China. There were four games in the 1-8 placement round which will be used to establish matchups for the quarterfinals that begin
on Sunday. The placement round will be completed Saturday.
South Korea vs Qatar 1-8 Placement
South Korea beat Qatar 3-0 (25-16 25-22 25-18) in their first game of the placement round. They’ll play Japan on Saturday, and Qatar will play India.
South Korea’s leading scorers were Sung Min Moon with 11 points, and Chul Woo Park with 10. Leading Qatar was Jumah Faraj Mohamed with 11.
South Korea crushed Qatar in spiking efficiency percentage 33.90 to 16.00, and they out blocked them 9-4. Qatar was closer in aces and digs, but still trailed South Korea in those categories 5-3 and 20-17
respectively.
Japan vs India 1-8 Placement
India won a very close match against the Japanese, 3-2 (25-20 25-19 21-25 26-28 15-13). India will play Qatar on Saturday and Japan will place South Korea.
Pradeep Guttikonda led India with 16 points, but India’s scoring was spread out amongst most of the team. Japan relied on two primary scorers: Tatsuya Fukuzawa had 27 points and Kunihiro Shimizu had 26.
India stormed ahead 2-0 in this match after taking the first two sets handily, but Japan battled back to win the third and fourth sets, the latter needing extra points to be decided. Then fifth and final
set was a close battle with India coming out on top 15-13.
Iran vs Thailand 1-8 Placement
Iran beat Thailand in straight sets (25-17 27-25 25-21). They’ll play China on Saturday and Thailand will play Saudi Arabia.
Iran’s top scorer was Seyed Mousavi, who had 14 points, and on top for Thailand was Jirayu Raksakaew with nine points.
While Iran beat Thailand in kill blocks 7-2 and aces 6-1, it was their spiking that won the match for Iran. They have an efficiency percentage of 39.24 to Thailand’s 26.25.
China vs Saudi Arabia 1-8 Placement
China won their first game of the placement round against Saudi Arabia 3-0 (25-20 25-15 25-17). They’ll play Iran on Saturday and Saudi Arabia will play Thailand.
Jianjun Cui had the most points for China with 13, and Ahmed A. Albakhet led Saudi Arabia with 10.
China did well in their serving game in this match with five aces and only three faults. Saudi Arabia committed 24 errors returning China’s serves, which was key for China in this match. They also had
some help from their blockers who out-blocked Saudi Arabia 11-4.
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