FIVB Women’s Nations League: China make winning start in Hong Kong, as partisan crowd make it feel ‘like a home game’
- China’s volleyball stars begin tournament with comfortable 3-set win over Canada
- Outside hitter Li Yingying hails raucous support from 4,000-strong crowd at Hong Kong Coliseum
China’s volleyball stars kicked off their Women’s Nations League in Hong Kong in convincing fashion on Tuesday, beating Canada in straight sets.
Having won all their four matches in the previous round in Nagoya last week, the squad maintained their 100 per cent record with a 25-14, 25-18, 29-27 win in front of a partisan 4,000-strong crowd at Hong Kong Coliseum.
Lead by captain Yuan Xinyue, a member of the 2016 Rio Olympic gold medal winning team, the world No 5s proved much better than their opponents, who are nine places behind in the rankings.
Outside hitter Li Yingying came away with 14 points, leaving her as the top scorer of the evening, one ahead of Canada’s captain Alexa Gray.
The 23-year-old Li was only a budding player when China took part in the same tournament in Hong Kong four years ago, but has now become a major part of team.
“I feel so happy to return to Hong Kong,” the Tianjin player said. “The fans’ support made it a like home ground for us and hopefully more will come to support us in the next three games.”
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu and his predecessor Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor were among the crowd, as was the city’s finance minister Paul Chan Mo-po.
Li’s spike was one of the keys to China’s victory as the 1.92-metre (6-foot-three-inch) tall player repeatedly threatened the opponents with her powerful hits.
“I performed to my normal standard and never thought of how many points I would score,” she said. “Perhaps this was the first day and needed a bit more time to get better and make improvement.
“But we should have controlled the game better as we allowed the opponents to come back in the third set. We have to take lessons from it.”
Gong Xiangyu, another member of the Rio Olympics squad, injured her right knee in the closing stages of the third set and had to limp off the venue.
“It doesn’t look that serious in the first place and we will see. There are two rest days before our next match and hopefully she can recover in time,” Li said.
The two sides rallied for the first few points in the opening set, before China pulled away to lead 14-6 and never looked back.
After taking the second set, the third proved much closer, and Canada were leading 20-19 before China head coach Cai Bin called a time out.
China saved a set point when they were down 25-24 before the two sides levelled at 27-all. Canada then made a mistake when they hit the ball outside as China finally clinched it 29-27.
