Chinese Taipei Storm Past Iran in Lopsided Match

Smaller, but steadier Chinese Taipei powered past Iran in straight sets 25-23 25-12 25-19 to taste first win in their second Pool A preliminary clash at the “SMM” 5th AVC Cup for Women at the Vinh Phuc Gymnasium here on Thursday.

Chinese Taipei fielded the same formidable line-up which put Thailand in much trouble in their opening encounter on Wednesday including Wu Wen-Hua and Chang Chen-Yin.

Chinese Taipei began encouragingly to take an early 5-2 lead in the first set. Iran, fielding the players from the fifth place-winning Samayeh Bank at the last week’s Asian Women’s Club Championship in the Philippines, stormed back with powerful attacks from Maedeh Borhani and Zainab Giveh to level 7-7. From then, both teams traded points through their aggressions and thrilling net-place performance. Leading 24-21, Chinese Taipei played cool under pressure, while the Iranians fought back hard to win two straight points before Chang Chen-Yin spiked the winning point for Chinese Taipei 25-23 to claim the opening set.

Their confidence sky-high following the first-set win, Chinese Taipei went on their onslaughts in the second set. Wu Wen-Hua and Chang Chen-Yin combined well in producing powerful pole attacks to put the team in front 8-2 and stretch it to 17-7. Iran tried to put their acts together, but still failed to make their mark. Chinese Taipei took the lop-sided second set 25-12.

The third set was still dominated by the well-established Chinese Taipei as they performed well defensively and offensively. Iran tried to regain their form to hit back with hard attacks and stuff blocking. However, Chinese Taipei played more consistently to win the set 25-19 and match.

Chinese Taipei will take on Vietnam in their last Pool A preliminary match on Friday, while Iran will go up against Thailand.

Chang Chen-Yin collected 12 points for Chinese Taipei, all of them from her deadly spikes. Wu Wen-Hua contributed with 10 points from attack hits. Maedeh Borhani tallied 12 points for Iran including 10 kills from 34 attempts. Soudabeh Bagherpour and Sheikhi Farnoosh added with 3 points apiece from their stuff blocks.

“We played five sets against Thailand the previous day and therefore, my players are very tired when taking on Iran today. I expected them to play better than this, but although they could not do that, it’s still quite okay when we can beat Iran. Our next match against Vietnam is very important. We have to play a must-win mach against the host side to make sure we will finish second in Pool A. If we are second in Pool A, we then will have to challenge Kazakhstan, the possible Pool B third place, in the knockout quarter-finals. China and Japan might be too strong for us. However, our target in this tournament remains unchanged. We eye for the top four,” Chinese Taipei head coach Lin Ming-Hui commented after the match.