Volero Zurich of Switzerland used brute force in downing Thailand’s Bangkok Glass, 25-21, 25-19, 25-23, while Vakifbank Istanbul of Turkey, which is actually in Euro-Asia, subdued Hisamitsu Springs Kobe, 25-15, 25-15, 29-31, 25-18, of Japan.
The Philippines’ PSL-F2 Logistics Manila was to face Brazilian top-tier team Rexona SESC-Rio in the nightcap.
Volero Zurich’s straight sets win over Asian powerhouse Bangkok Glass still failed to please its Serbian coach Zoran Terzic.
“There are individual players here who scored points but it is nothing because we played badly as a team,” said Terzic, who cited opening-day jitters for their seeming lack of punch.
Terzic added they still had to adjust to the different game style of Bangkok Glass.
“Thailand, they play some different volleyball if you compare with European volleyball and it was little bit difficult from the start,” Terzic said.
“They (Asians) need to play a different kind of volleyball because of the physical characteristic of the players. They are not so tall, so they had to play much, much faster and play better defense,” Terzic noted.
His team captain, Natalya Mammadova, said that despite the scores, “it’s not very easy, they play good defense and the game was up and down.”
And in that kind of game, Terzic said, “definitely we can’t win any point very easy.”
Bangkok Glass team captain Thinkaow Pleumjit said they “learned a lot today. So we hope to our team to improve in our next game.”
“They are very tall and very strong,” added Pleumjit.
Bangkok Glass coach Kittinpong Porncha said facing the taller, mightier teams here is “very, very difficult. They are strong and tall so we have to train to be faster than them.”
Vakifbank posted a meet record 27 blocks, nine of them coming from reigning Olympic gold medalist Zhu Ting, who also bettered her own mark.
Naz Aydemir also had 44 excellent sets for Vakifbank, while Zhu wound up with a game-high 28 points.