Australian Women Defeat NZ at Asian Champs
The 12th Senior Asian Women's Volleyball Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, began on Sept 20 and concluded with the grand final between China and Japan on Sept 27. The Volleyball Team Australia Women would have left disappointed with their ninth place finish but a last match victory over New Zealand kept their spirits high.
The Australians opened the tournament against Philippines and while they weren't at full strength (Tamsin Barnett had a knee injury, Eileen Romanowski an injured shoulder and restricted to a backcourt role only, and Mel Tregenza was yet to recover from an ankle injury), the Australians were still expected to account for the smaller but more highly skilled Philippinos. However, in the first upset of the tournament, Australia went down in five sets to a much improved and very determined Philippines side. It was disappointing end to the match for the Australians, dominating the fourth set to level the match at two sets all and establishing what appeared to be a winning break in the fifth (12:8). The match was there for the taking, but Australia failed to capitalise and spiking errors allowed the Philippines a run of seven straight points to surrender the match.
Up against world number 8, Korea, in their second match, the Australians showed great character to step up and take the second set. It was only the second time in many meetings with Korea over recent years that Australia has taken the match beyond 3 sets. Coach Mark Barnard praised his young charges and said of their performance: "For the team that we have here (relatively young and inexperienced) it was an amazing achievement, especially to have taken the set in the manner that we did. Korea makes you work hard for every point and to be 14:3 up against that calibre of opposition in an event as big as Asians was remarkable. Of course, you would expect Korea to come back at us, which they did, but we were strong enough to hold off that challenge and that just capped off a great set of volleyball for us. We just need to kick on from here."
World number one, China, kept a clean sheet at the championship after beating Australia in straight sets on Tuesday. It was a much improved performance for the Australians over that of a couple of weeks ago when these teams meet in Hong Kong. After losing the first set, Australia contested hotly in the following two sets to keep a narrow lead over China in the beginning, but they went down tamely afterward and faded in both sets. The speed and extreme power of the Chinese attack was coupled with 27 efficient blocks, but they also had eight serving errors during the one hour match.
In their final round-robin match, Australia came up against Kazakhstan. A win for the Australians could place them as high as third in pool E and secure a berth in the quarter finals, while a loss would place them fifth and push them down to a 9th/10th playoff. Team Australia took their chances early and in their strongest display of the tournament, won the first set. However, Kazakhstan fought back in the second and then went away with it for a comfortable win in the fourth as passing and hitting errors tormented the Australians.
There was just pride to play for in the Australian's playoff against New Zealand. Australia was expected to win, but the enthusiastic Kiwis threatened a boil-over at times during the first set. After a shakey start, the Australians grew in confidence as the spikes and serves found their range, eventually completing a comfortable three set victory.
In the grand final, China retained their Asian title with a straight sets win over Japan. Chen Zhonghe, the head coach of China, wasn't entirely happy with his players though, saying after the match, "We played well today, generally speaking. We are good at serving, attacking and blocking, but defense is just so so." Korea finished third and along with China and Japan, qualified for the Volleyball World Cup slated for November in Japan.
Reference: Match reports by Sue Jenkins, Assistant Coach, Volleyball Team Australia Women.