Zhou Suhong 7# of China saves the ball against Vietnam
during the preliminary Pool A of the women's volleyball at Al-Rayyan Indoor Hall
in Doha, yesterday. -Xinhua
Defending champion China beat Vietnam 3-0 at the women's volleyball
tournament of the Doha Asiad yesterday, unveiling its journey to win the seventh
Asian Games gold medal of the event since 1978.
The reigning Olympic champions, which is in desperate need of victory after a
disappointing fifth-place finish at the 2006 World Championship in Japan, was
lined up with a star-squad led by captain Feng Kun.
The slim Vietnamese fought bravely at the opening set to catch up with their
towering opponents 12-12, while Chinese women dominated the rest time with
killing spikes and powerful serves by ending the set 25-18.
In the following two sets, China left no chance to Vietnam and its second
string lineup finished the one-sided match 25-9 and 25-10.
China's 19-year-old spiker Wang Yimei, a rising star of the team, continued
her impressive performance at the World Championship and is the best scorer of
the match by contributing 25 points, including six ace serve.
Chen Zhonghe, China's head coach was satisfied with his team, but kept a
low-key on his expectation of the Games.
"It's another challenge for China to play weaker teams. So, I asked my
players to go all out in this match and they didn't let me down," said Chen.
"But at the first set, we had some serving errors, which left a12-12 tie with
Vietnam and that's what I haven't expected," said Chen. "Every match is the key
match for us and now, we are concentrating on the preparations for the matches
later."
Nine teams are split into two groups to battle for the women's volleyball
championship, with China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Vietnam playing in
Group A and Kazakhstan, Japan, Thailand, Tajikistan and Mongolia in Group B.
China will face South Korea, which vowed to enter the final, on Sunday.
Japan, South Korea and Chinese Taipei were generally regarded as the major
opponents of China at the Asian Games.
