AVC Men’s U23 Championship/ China Firepower Australia 3-1

Ardabil, Iran, May 3, 2017 – China overcome the tower players of Australia 3-1 (25-18, 24-26, 25-21, 25-22) and made it possible for the Malaysian to take his chance into the quarterfinal at the SMM 2^nd Asian Men’s U23 Volleyball championship at Rezazadeh 6000-seat Stadium on Wednesday.

The first set saw China outscore Australia, which seemed to get off to a slow start. With outstanding blocks on the net and powerful serves, China finished off the set 25-18.

China first led 8-5 at the first technical timeout in the second set, but the Olympian coach of Australia with a couple of substitutions made it tie 11-11 and found better strategy to close the set 26-24. China could no more let the Australians receive their balls as Benjamin Hardy indicate this as the source of most of his players’ errors which left them unable to reach success and they lost 21-25 in the third set. Australia reacted aggressively in the fourth set and with better attacks worthen a praise but China fought consistently to finish 25-22 to move up to the quarterfinals as the top team of pool C.

Benjamin Hardy who took part in two Olympic Games and Four World Championship carry a wealth of experiences into the court and said: “My players are getting together from different parts of the world as some of them were in Canada and some other from Europe. Generally speaking, I am satisfied with their performance as their attitude improved much better in this match.”

Qiyong Zhang, Chinese head coach found it a tough match against Australia and said: “the level of matches here is so high. China is always a tough opponent for each team. Yet, my players are so young and inexperienced and need some more time to practice”.

It is to remind that China is to face Pakistan, the second team of pool A tomorrow on Thursday.