Vietnam trips Creamline-PH; China, Japan triumph

Vietnam vs Creamline Philippines in the AVC Cup for Women. AVC PHOTO

A Philippine squad represented by a club champion missing its key players put up a gallant stand against a young Vietnam team before falling, 25-19, 25-17, 31-29, on Sunday in its opening match in the Asian Volleyball Confederation (AVC) Cup for Women at PhilSports Arena.

The depleted Creamline Cool Smashers, who missed Alyssa Valdez, Risa Sato and setter Jia de Guzman, sputtered after strong starts in the first two sets and watched their desperate fight in the third fizzle out to absorb the setback.

The Filipinos, who were also without coach Sherwin Meneses, fought back from a 17-11 deficit and were at set point twice in the third frame, but just couldn’t close things out there. Tots Carlos, who struggled in the first two sets, caught fire in the third and delivered the crucial kills that kept the Philippines afloat. But Vietnam eventually took its first win in Group A after Carlos sent an attack out, got blocked and committed a net touch that wiped out the Philippines’ 29-28 lead.

Earlier, defending champion China dominated a young South Korea side, 25-9, 25-8, 25-9, to kick off its title-retention bid.

Zhuang Yushan led the Chinese’s balanced attack, scoring eight of her 13 points in the third set to pound the South Koreans in 69 minutes.

Zhou Yetong was also instrumental with 11 points. Hu Mingyuan added 10, as setter Sun Haiping provided brilliant plays and displayed a solid performance from the service line, nailing five of China’s 13 service aces.

The South Koreans fielded high school players, who have an average age of 17. The young standouts gave up 18 errors, while China kept its miscues at nine.

Meanwhile, Yuki Nishikawa unleashed 20 points as Japan opened its campaign with a convincing 25-18, 25-19, 25-22 win over Thailand.

Nishikawa delivered nine in the third set, finishing with 19 spikes and an ace. Miyu Nakagawa and Mizuki Tanaka had 14 and 11 points, respectively.

“We wanted to improve our offensive play. That’s our goal for the next game,” said Japan skipper and setter Mika Shibata.