China sweeps Germany and heads off to semis: FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship
The second day of the FIVB Girls’ Youth World Championship took place on the 17th of August in Ankara, Turkey. A Pool E match was conducted between China and Germany at the Baskent Sports Hall in which the Chinese celebrated a three set back to
back win over the Germans.
Despite the fact that the Germans lost the match in a clean sweep to China, they battled the first two sets of the match with fierce determination. It was only in the third set of the game that the German performance slackened and the Chinese were given
an easy route towards a win. The final set scores at the end of the day stood at the following figures: 25-23, 25-23 and 25-11.
The coach of the Chinese team, Mang Shen, shared his feelings with the people present at the press conference after the match in the following words: “It told my players Germany would be a strong opponent. We are very proud to go to the semifinals. Tomorrow’s
match versus Turkey will be a bonus. We’ll enjoy the atmosphere.”
On the other hand, Jens Tietbohl, the German coach expressed himself in these words: “Congratulations to China, they deserve their spot in the semis. They play modern and fast volleyball. Even when we lost the match, I’m satisfied with today’s first two
sets.”
The Germans started the first set of the match in a determined fashion by taking the lead at 8-7 and stuck with it till the second technical timeout. However, the Chinese did not give up the chase and kept on closing in the gap until the time China finally
had the lead that brought them the win at 25-23.
Losing the opening set of the game in such a manner did not affect the spirits of the Germans negatively and they started the second set with fighting spirit. During the later part of the frame, the Chinese were in a leading position at 21-17 but the Germans
managed to make the match reach a tie at 21-21. However, the superior skills of the Chinese team gave them another win at 25-23.
The third set saw the Germans put in a half-hearted effort that enabled the Chinese to get a fair advantage at 16-6 which they kept on extending until China had bagged the final set at 25-11.
Despite the fact that they lost the match, the German player Jennifer Geerties was able to lead all scorers by posting 12 points while the Chinese top scorer tallied 10 points in the entire match.
Next in line for the Chinese squad is a match with Turkey while the Germans will be facing Argentina on Friday.
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