China topples U.S. 3-1 to clinch bronze in FIVB Volleyball Women’s Junior World Championship
China and U.S. were up against each other in the bronze medal match of the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Junior World Championship on the 31st of July. The match was played in Lima, Peru and stretched for four thrilling sets at the end of which the
Chinese team made a place for themselves on the podium after winning 3-1.
The U.S. came out strong in the first set of the game and was able to dominate the Chinese all through. However, after losing the opening set, the Chinese bagged the second and the third ones with relative ease. The fourth set of the game witnessed a fierce
struggle between the teams but the U.S squad could not take the match to a fifth set as the Chinese sealed the deal at the following final set scores: 20-25, 25-19, 25-16 and 25-23.
The Chinese coach, Jiande Xu, made the following statements at the press conference after his team had secured the win: “USA is a good team, strong and with good matches yesterday against Brazil and today. We were tired, but now we are happy for the victory.”
On the other hand, the U.S. coach, Robert Browning, spoke about the match and said, “Congratulation to China. We really respect their game. We had the opportunity to play some preparation matches before and we saw how good they were. We had our opportunities
to get the bronze medal playing against Italy, Brazil and China, but we did not play well. They really deserve this medal."
The start of the first set went well for the U.S side as they were able to enter the first technical time out with a lead at 8-6 and was able to extend it to 16-11. The Chinese kept trailing behind as the U.S. squad marched on to the close the set at 19-13.
However, the Chinese put in a last ditch effort that brought the score to a tie at 20-20 but the U.S prevailed in bagging the opening set at 25-20.
The second set reached a tie early on at 3-3 but the Chinese managed to stay in the lead at 8-7 when the first technical time out was reached. China was still with the advantage at 14-11 followed by 16-13. The United States could not do much to stop the
Chinese from sealing the deal on the second set at 25-19.
China started the third set strongly and the U.S. lagged far behind at 11-3. It was only a matter of time before the Chinese could bag a win at 25-16. The U.S. showed signs of life in the fourth set and was able to get the lead early on only to give it away
to China at 8-4. However, the American team made leveled the set at 13-13 but it was the Chinese team that ended the match on their terms at 25-23.
The player that scored the most points for China was Zhou Yang, tallying 18 points while Haley Eckerman also registered 18 points.
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