Zhu Ting leads China to a winning start in women’s volleyball Nations League in Hong Kong
- The Rio Olympic champions brush aside perennial rivals Japan in straight sets in their first match
- A crowd of about 8,500 witness China at their best as Italy down the Netherlands in other game
They all came to watch their favourite team and they were not disappointed after China made a winning start at the women’s Volleyball Nations League Hong Kong leg, beating Japan 3-0 at the Coliseum on Tuesday night.
Spectators had waited all evening to watch the Rio Olympic champions in action and the 12,000-seat Coliseum burst into life with about 70 per cent in the house occupied by fans of one of the most supported teams of any sport in Hong Kong.
Forget about Liverpool winning the Champions League soccer crown, this was the arena for the towering Chinese champions, led by top spiker Zhu Ting, who wowed the crowd with her pin-point smashes and faultless leadership on their way to a 27-25, 25-18, 25-21 victory.
Zhu Ting led her team with 18 points, 16 in attack and two in blocking. China won all three of their matches in the previous leg in Macau.
“This is a top-level game and we are happy to be the winners,” Zhu said. “We had some difficulties, especially in the first set, but this happens in any match, especially against Japan.”
Coach Lang Ping praised Japan for their strong defence, which she said was difficult to break down.
“I agree with our captain that this was an exciting game,” he said.
“We know Japan have their own characteristics, especially in defence but tonight they also did well in attack and played very fast. Tall players are not good at defence and they need to learn this from Japan who are very fast. We can also learn from the Japanese players.”
Italy also got their campaign off to a winning start, cruising to a 3-1 victory over the Netherlands.
Spiker Indre Sorokaite led the Italian charge, smashing 24 points, including 17 from her powerful attack as the former world champions prevailed 25-13, 22-25, 25-19, 25-16.
Wing spiker Elena Pietrini scored 17 points for Italy while Nicole Oude Luttikhuis was top scorer for the Netherlands with 13.
Italy, currently second in the 16-team table, rested their top player, Paola Egonu, the 2018 World Championships best spiker after she led her team to silver behind Serbia.
At 1.93 metres, the 20-year-old can jump an amazing 3.44 metres, the highest among the top players in the worldwide league. While Egonu did not play on Tuesday night, she attended the post-match press conference with coach Davide Mazzanti and captain Cristina Chirichella.
Egonu did not give a specific reason why she did not start in the match but Mazzanti assured Hong Kong fans their star players would start in Italy’s next two games against Japan and China respectively.
“She has played too many matches at club level but she will be in action in Hong Kong later,” said Mazzanti, who took charge of Italy after the team’s poor run at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“We are happy to get off to a winning start but today we gave away too many points during the match against the Netherlands. We need improvement when we play against the other teams.”
Captain Chirichella said the team played inconsistently but was pleased with the result nonetheless.
The Netherlands have brought a young side to Hong Kong missing top player Lonneke Sloetjes, who played with Chinese spiker Zhu Ting at VakifBank in the Turkish professional league.
Coach Alessandro Beltrami was not too disappointed with the result, saying they were playing quality opponents.
“I am 65 per cent happy with the team but this is a good opportunity for our young guns to learn from the Italians,” he said.
Of the 16-team league, the top five teams after 20 legs in five weeks, along with hosts China, will qualify for the final in Nanjing early next month.
