Playing catchup pretty much the whole match, South Korea put down Chinese Taipei, 16-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-14, 15-10, to take a spot in the semifinals of the Asian U23 Women’s Volleyball Championship Thursday afternoon at Philsports Arena.
It was a superb defensive stop that sent Korea to the semifinals when Moon Myounghwa denied Chen Tzu-Ya to seal the match in the fifth set.
Korean head coach Hong Sungjin admitted that his team had a difficult time dealing with Korea’s well-balanced offense.
“Chinese Taipei is a very strong team, they have good combinations, good team work, it’s difficult matching up,” Hong said.
Chinese-Taipei managed to cut the South Korean lead to three, 11-8, in the fifth set but immediately sank back to a 14-9 hole when Lee Tzu-Ying’s attack went straight to the net.
South Korean team captain Cho Songhwa admitted that their mistakes hampered them but they managed to adjust in the fifth set.
The Koreans had 29 errors that gave Chinese Taipei the early groove.
“We had many mistakes… but we adjusted to make it to five sets,” Cho said.
Lee Soyoung went on a tear for South Korea as she finished with 29 points while Ha Hyejin and An Hyeri added 19 and 16 points, respectively.
Chen led Chinese Taipei with 16 points.
Chinese Taipei fell down to the classification stages where it can settle for fifth place at best.