Hard hitting enables China to edge out Belgium in semi-final qualifier: Volleyball
China battled out a great win over Belgium in the semi-final qualifying match on Wednesday, July 27. The City of Trujillo hosted the match, while Gran Chimu Gymnasium set up the field of play for the fixture. Chinese team maintained its winning streak of
five matches and defeated Belgium by sending 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, and 25-19) on the board. China finished the first round of the tournament with final score of 3-0. Moreover, they are going strong in the second round and are getting near to make another clean
sweep.
It was a cracking fight as two of the tournament’s top-scorers were playing in the match. Slovakia had the support of Lise Van Hecke, who compiled most number of scores in the tournament so far. Likewise, China’s Zhou Yang was another player featured in
the top-five best scorers of the tournament.
China went straight into action with Huimin Wang’s powerful serves. Meanwhile, Zhou Yang and Xiaoya Zhange formed a good combination to put their team in lead at the first technical timeout. Belgium trailed behind with 4 points and scored points only on
opponents’ errors. Belgian players couldn’t show their real form in the opening set as only player could score more than three points. China, on the other hand, controlled the operations and cruised past to first-set win after 24 minutes’ play.
After winning the opening set, China was in better position to exert more pressure on Belgium. They scored seven straight points in the second round. Belgium slightly picked up with some of convincing shots by Lise Van Hecke. Anyhow China was not ready to
lose the spot. They kept moving forward and successfully put an end to second set. Belgium slipped the second straight set with margin of 7 points.
Except Lise Van Hecke, rest of the Belgian squad failed to give out the up to mark performance. As a result China overpowered Belgium in third set and declared match victory.
“We are very disappointed; we could have done much more from this game. Now we are going to focus on our next match China is a great team, congratulations.” “We are aware that we got to fight for what’s left for us, we will go up step by step.” said Julien
Van De Vyver, the Head Coach of Team Belgium after the match.
The Chinese Coach, Xu Jiande also had his say about match. He commented: “Yesterday in the match against Slovakia we didn’t performed properly, we prepared for this match and therefore we won.”
The Captain of the Chinese Women, Long Cheng, expressed delight at the victory in an important match. She said her side improved in order to win the match.
China is now scheduled to take on archrival Brazil in the final match of second round 2011 FIVB Women’s Junior World Championship on Thursday, July 28. This is going to be an interesting match as both teams are already confirmed for the semi-finals but this
match will test their abilities and temperament. Whoever wins the match will have the confidence to give out a better performance in the next match.
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