Asian Games volleyball recap: Pakistan, Taiwan, Kazakhstan and Kuwait win placement matches
The men’s volleyball placement round began on Friday in China at the Asian Games. The preliminary round divided the countries into two groups of eight, the top eight and the bottom eight. The top eight
play to determine the matchups for the quarterfinals while the bottom eight play to establish their final positions between 9 and 16.
Pakistan vs Turkmenistan 9-16 Placement
Pakistan beat Turkmenistan in their first placement round game 3-0 (25-19 25-19 27-25). Pakistan will play Indonesia on Saturday while Turkmenistan will play against Taiwan.
Naseer Ahmed led Pakistan in scoring with 26 points. Batyr Soyunov led Turkmenistan with 13.
Pakistan cruised through the first two sets before Turkmenistan forced them into extra points in a tight third set. In the match, Pakistan had an efficiency percentage of 21.70 to Turkmenistan’s 12.38.
The difference in percentages was primarily due to Pakistan’s 20 digs, Turkmenistan had only eight.
Indonesia vs Taiwan 9-16 Placement
Taiwan beat Indonesia in straight sets (25-18 25-23 25-14) and will play Turkmenistan on Saturday. Indonesia will play Pakistan.
Three players scored in double digits for Taiwan, Chia Jui Tai had 12 points, Chien Feng Huang had 11, and Tien Yu Chiang had 10. None of Indonesia’s scorers made it to double digits; Herlambang Maruf
was the closest with nine.
Taiwan dominated in kill blocks, beating Indonesia 10-1, but Indonesia led in digs 13-4.
Kazakhstan vs Myanmar 9-16 Placement
Kazakhstan beat Myanmar 3-0 (25-14 25-11 25-22) in their placement game. Kazakhstan will play Kuwait on Saturday while Myanmar will go on to play Viet Nam.
Alexandr Stolnikov and Vitaliy Erdshtein tied with 13 points to lead Kazakhstan, and Dmitriy Gorbatkov was close behind with 12 points. Win Tun Oo led Myanmar with 14 points.
Kazakhstan dominated this match. They beat Myanmar in kill blocks 9-3, and aces 9-3, and didn’t give them much of a chance until a fairly close third set which Kazakhstan won 25-22.
Athletes from Kuwait vs Viet Nam 9-16 Placement
Kuwait won a very close match against Viet Nam 3-2 (20-25 25-23 25-16 19-25 15-9). Kuwait will now play Kazakhstan on Saturday and Viet Nam will play Myanmar.
Leading Kuwait in scoring was Sultan Abdulmajieid with 21 points, and Abdullah Mansour with 20, three others scored in the double digits for Kuwait. Ngoc Kien Pham led Viet Nam with 18.
The teams were very close statistically, Kuwait had a 26.62 spiking efficiency while Viet Nam was 25.42. Viet Nam led in blocks 14-8, but Kuwait had more aces 10-3. The dig battle was close as well with
Viet Nam beating Kuwait 30-28.
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