Sports Desk
JIANGMEN: Zhejiang bounced back from an opening set loss to defeat Liaoning 3-1 (9-25, 26-24, 25-15, 25-20) in the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Championship here on Monday.
Liaoning stunned Zhejiang quickly after the start of the first set with a 6-0 run and a 7-0 run, which eliminated Zhejiang’s chances to resist.
It seemed Liaoning would dominate the game again as they grabbed seven points in a row in the opening stage of the second set. However, Zhejiang then strengthened their blocking and gradually narrowed Liaoning’s lead.
Although Liaoning got the set point first at 24-21, the consecutive errors in their front row let Zhejiang pull one set back.
Zhejiang’s captain Zhu Yuezhou was the key person to lead her side to give Liaoning a 4-0 and a 6-0 shock in the middle of the third set. Liaoning then failed to cut the deficit.
Liaoning followed Zhejiang tightly in the fourth set until Zhejiang strengthened the lead by scoring four points in a row. Wang Na took the set point with a service, then Liaoning gifted the victory to Zhejiang with a spiking error.
“Liaoning put a lot of pressure to us in the first set, so I encouraged my players to counterattack them even more fiercely,” said Zhejiang head coach Wang Hebing.
“If we don’t have advantage on strength, we should be much more confident than our opponents, and showing a stronger will to win,” he added.
Another game on Monday saw Tianjin take a 3-0 (25-17, 25-17, 25-17) victory over Fujian.
Fujian was in lead in the start of the first set. However, Tianjin retook the advantage after scoring five points in a row. Fujian’s frequent errors in receiving allowed Tianjin to a win.
