Asian Games women's volleyball recap: North and South Korea win, China crushes Tajikistan
The women’s volleyball preliminary round began on Thursday in China at the Asian Games. There were five matches, putting 10 of 11 teams in action. Mongolia was the only team not to play.
North Korea vs India Group B
North Korea won their first match 3-0 (25-23 25-13 25-20) over India. The match drew the smallest attendance of the day with only 705 spectators.
Leading the way for North Korea was Jin Sim Jong, who had 19 points. The only other player to reach double digits for North Korea was Ok Sim Han with 10. Minimol Abraham led India with 14 points.
The match started off close with North Korea winning a close set, 25-23, but then India fell apart in the second set, losing 25-13. They picked up the pace in the third set, but couldn’t manage a set win
as they lost the 25-20.
North Korea finished with 12 aces to India’s five, but India led in kill blocks 9-6.
Korea will play their next game against Japan, and India will play Maldives, both games will be played on Friday.
Thailand vs South Korea Group A
South Korea beat Thailand in straight sets (25-20 25-19 25-17) to open the tournament with a victory.
Leading South Korea in scoring was Yeon Koung Kim with 21 points, and Onuma Sittirak led Thailand with 11.
Thailand wasn’t completely dominated in this match, but South Korea didn’t really give them a chance to win any of the sets. The smallest margin of victory for South Korea was five points in the first
set. Thailand was fairly close statistically, they had six kill blocks to South Korea’s nine, and they trailed in aces, 6-3. It was spiking that hurt the Thais. South Korea had 42 spikes while Thailand only had 28.
In Friday’s matches, Thailand will play Mongolia, and South Korea will play Tajikistan.
Tajikistan vs China Group A
China destroyed Tajikistan 3-0 (25-5 25-4 25-2) in their first game of the preliminary round. Tajikistan was completely outmatched, and had no chance to beat a clearly superior Chinese team.
China spread their scoring out amongst almost every player with Lei Zhang having the most points with nine. No player on Tajikistan managed more than one point.
China had beat Tajikistan in kill blocks 7-0, and aces 13-1. They also won the spikes battle 35-3.
China will have their off day on Friday while Tajikistan will play against South Korea.
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