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China Takes Revenge on Japan in Women's Volleyball Grand Prix
The Chinese women's spikers took revenge on their Japanese counterparts by winning the first match of the Harbin tournament of the Grand Prix 3-1 on Friday.
The Chinese team, which suffered two consecutive losses to Japan before the encounter, won the match 21-25, 25-17, 25-11 and 25-19.
In the first weekend competitions of the Grand Prix played in Hong Kong last week, China lost to Japan 0-3. Earlier in the Switzerland Four-Nation tournament, the Chinese team were also beaten by the Japanese.
The Japanese team had shocked the other three teams involved in Hong Kong tournament, including such world powerhouses Cuba and Brazil, by scoring three 3-0 victories for the title. But they found it was quite different on the first day of the Harbin tournament, just seven days after their glorious victory in Hong Kong.
Thanks to their sophisticated skills in attacting and serving and took advantage of errors by an impetuous Chinese team, the Japanese managed to take the first set 25-21.
The Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe made two major substitutions in the second set with Yang Hao replacing an noneffective Zhang Jing and sent in the tallest player Zhao Leilei, who stands at 1.96 meters.
The substitutions took effect immediately. Yang Hao's attack time and again beat the Japanese defense while Zhao's attack and block proved to be too much for the Japanese to deal with.
The Chinese team led all the way and took the second set 25-17. The set was the turning point of the match.
The Chinese spikers became more confident in the following two sets, winning 25-11 and 25-19 to wrap up the match 3-1.
"We played a good match today as our players were confident that they had the ability to beat them," said Chinese head coach Chen Zhonghe after the match, "we lost the match in Hong Kong because our young players failed to play up to their level."
Japanese head coach Masahiro Yoshikawa was depressed after the match, saying that his team put up a disappointing performance:" Today we didn't play as good as in Hong Kong. Yoshie Takeshita (setter) and some of the other players displayed just 30% of their abilities."
The Chinese team will play against Germany while Japan take on Brazil on Saturday.
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