Taiwan continued their excellent performance in the women's event at the World Volleyball Championships yesterday, beating African champions Kenya for their second straight win.
The Taiwanese squad, which posted a historic first-ever win over hosts Japan on Tuesday, moved a step forward towards the next stage of the tournament with a 25-13, 25-9, 29-27 win in the six-team Pool A round robin.
"For us, every match is a challenge in this tournament. We prepared for today's match as well. It was a good experience to play against Kenya," Taiwan's captain Chen Shu-li (
PHOTO: AFP
The Kenyan team squandered several set points before losing the match in 71 minutes.
"The Kenyan players are shy. It always takes some time to start playing their own game and we usually don't have enough information about our opponents," Kenya's Japanese coach Sadatoshi Sugawara said.
"We start to cope with our opponents after a match has started. We have to get into top gear from the very beginning for the remaining matches. But today Taiwan never made mistakes. They tried to keep the ball in play without an error. They are a wonderful team, as if they have been playing for 10 years together," Sugawara added.
PHOTO: AFP
Meanwhile, Taiwan's coach Lin Kuang-hung (
European champions Poland, who needed four sets to beat Kenya on Tuesday, were stretched the distance before beating South Korea, 25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 23-25, 15-12, to post a 2-0 record.
"We were really concentrating well throughout the fight, because we know the Korean team. We played them in the Grand Prix and we lost 2-3, so we really wanted to win today's match," Polish captain Joanna Mirek said.
Coach Klos Ireneusz said: "It's a pity we couldn't finish the match in the fourth set when we had the score 21-17. Obviously my players didn't concentrate well, but all five sets were very dramatic, so I'm very, very happy."
In other action, favorites Brazil and Russia remained unbeaten, while Serbia and Montenegro, who stunned defending champions Italy on Tuesday, did it again, beating three-time world champions Cuba 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23.
"We know only Costa Rica were ranked below us in this tournament, but nevertheless we were convinced that this was not a real picture of the situation," Serbian coach Zoran Terzic said. "We are glad that we showed our potential against such a good team like Italy and Cuba."
Team captain Vesna Citakovic added: "I don't think we can become the world champions after only two wins, but I'm glad we came into this game with huge motivation and that we managed to win it. We played well today."
The Brazilians, who have dominated South American play in the past six years and the World Grand Prix in the past three years, outgunned Asian silver medallists Kazakhstan 25-17, 25-13, 25-16 in Pool C in Kobe.
Puerto Rico notched its first win, beating Cameroon 25-17, 25-23, 25-20.
Sydney and Athens Olympic silver medallists Russia prevailed over Azerbaijan in four sets, 25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 25-20, while Germany outplayed Mexico 25-18, 25-21, 25-19 in Pool B in Sapporo.
In Pool D in Nagoya with Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey defeated two-time former African champions Egypt, 25-11, 25-12, 25-8.
Brazil, Russia, Germany and Serbia and Montenegro all have 2-0 records, with the top four teams from each group advancing to the second stage.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS