Vietnam eliminated from Asia’s top four after loss at Asian women’s volleyball tourney

May 28, 2015 | 10:30

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Vietnam failed to advance to the semis of the 2015 Asian Women’s Volleyball Championship after suffering a 0-3 loss to Chinese Taipei in their quarterfinal match in Tianjin, China on Tuesday.

Facing such an evenly-matched opponent, Vietnam was expected to display the same strong spirit they had in the group stage. However, Vietnam went down 18-25, 20-25, and 19-25.

The Vietnamese women’s team ranks 35th in the world while Chinese Taipei stands at 39th place.

An unstable competition spirit was the main reason behind the defeat in the last-eight round yesterday, said Nguyen Ba Nghi, vice chairman of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation.

“The women from Chinese Taipei performed well while their Vietnamese counterparts failed to show their strength because of poor defense in the front line.

“Coordination between the lines of Vietnam in this match was not effective,” Nghi noted.

Following the loss, Vietnam will play more matches to determine their ranking at the tournament, from the fifth to the eighth places.

Vietnam beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the qualifiers of the 2014 World Women’s Volleyball Championship.

To enter the quarterfinals, Vietnam crushed Mongolia 3-0 and came from behind to defeat Japan 3-2 in the preliminary qualification round last week, before surpassing Iran 3-2 and losing 0-3 to China in the second qualification round.

This is the fourth consecutive loss by Vietnam in the quarterfinals of the Asian women’s volleyball championships since 2012.

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