Thailand grabs back-to-back victories in preliminary round: 16th Asian Women’s Championship
The cracking action of Asian Women’s volleyball teams kicked off on Thursday, September 15 in Chinese Taipei, as a total of fourteen teams, including Thailand, kick-started the first round. Thailand started the campaign in Pool B and played two matches. In the opener on Thursday, they took on Vietnam and made a clean sweep and treated the Australian team in a similar manner in the next match on Saturday. The success in two matches put Thailand at the Number One position in Pool B and also awarded them with ticket to the next round. Thailand will now continue the campaign in Pool F along with the top three teams of the championship.
Match 1: Thailand 3 - Vietnam 0
The opening match of Pool B turned into an exciting three-set affair between defending champion Thailand and Vietnam. Thai squad equipped with a great team-line opened the match in great style. They followed a proper attack strategy and remained successful in their attempts. They proved their superiority as defending champions and demonstrated forceful attacks. Vietnam put up a good effort but failed to outdo their competitors. The first set slipped from the hands of the Vietnamese at 15-25.
They learned from their experience and delivered a better performance in the second set. Thailand trailed behind for the better part of the second set but finally managed to overcome their opponents. Success once again fell upon the Thai squad and they won the second frame with a narrow margin of two points at 27-25.
The top spiker from Thailand, Onuma Sittirak, enabled her team to capture the third set with a huge gap of 17 points. The final set scores for Thailand were 25-15, 27-25, and 25-8.
Match 2: Thailand 3 - Australia 0
In the second match, Thailand gave out another incredible performance against the average Australian squad. The match was held at the National Taiwan University Gymnasium on Saturday, September 17. The fans were in the stand and ready to support the Thai squad as Thailand built up a comfortable lead in each of the three sets. The Aussies were unable to get any momentum going and fell behind. Thailand incorporated excellent attack and defence tactics, which resulted in a straight set defeat for Australia. The score board showed the final score of 3-0 (25-11, 25-19, and 25-19) resulting in second win for Thailand.
Thailand finished the opening round of the tournament with absolute success. They won both their preliminary matches and earned six points. The wonderful performance of defending champions shows their intent to go for another Asian title this year. They are enjoying great form and seem ready to keep up the good work in the upcoming matches.
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